1. Program schedule

Return to work and disability management

Session details

Date:

Time:

Location:

Zoom videoconferencing

Didactic presentation by:

Behdin Nowrouzi-Kia

Session objectives

At the end of this session, participants should be able to:

  1. Explain the role of allied health practitioners in return to work and disability management
  2. Recognize resources for suitable workplace accommodations through a biopsychosocial framework
  3. Summarize the "Seven principles for successful return to work”

Session resources

Accommodating and Communicating about Episodic Disability (ACED)
The development of an ACED toolkit is at the heart of this project. The toolkit, when completed, will contain a number of tools that provide guidance to workers with episodic disabilities, as well as their employers, managers, supervisors, disability managers and human resources personnel. Source: Institute for Work & Health
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Didactic presentation: Return to work and disability management
In this presentation, Dr. Behdin Nowrouzi-Kia discusses the role of allied health practitioners in return to work and disability management, key principles for successful return to work, and identifying resources for suitable workplace accommodations.
Download the PDF(1001.97 KB)
Occupational therapy return to work interventions for persons with trauma and stress-related mental health conditions: a scoping review
Edgelow M, Harrison L, Miceli M, Cramm H. Occupational therapy return to work interventions for persons with trauma and stress-related mental health conditions: a scoping review. Work. 2020;65(4):821-836. doi: 10.3233/WOR-203134.
Read abstract in PubMed
Seven “Principles” for Successful Return to Work
What do employers need to do to enhance a worker’s return to work (RTW) after an injury or illness? The evidence-based advice contained in Seven “Principles” for Successful Return to Work provides some answers. The principles are based on an Institute for Work & Health (IWH) systematic review of RTW studies, which identified the elements contributing to a successful return to work. Source: Institute for Work & Health
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Supporting return to work among employees with musculoskeletal or mental health conditions: an evidence-based practical resource
This resource synthesizes the research evidence on the practical solutions that workplaces can implement—in conjunction with workers’ compensation, insurance and health-care authorities—to support the return to work (RTW) of employees with musculoskeletal disorders or mental health conditions. This two-page guide emphasizes that the most effective RTW strategies package together interventions from more than one of three areas of RTW support: health services, case coordination and work modification. The key messages in the resource come from systematic reviews conducted at the Institute for Work & Health. These systematic reviews scanned the research literature for quality evidence about the effectiveness of workplace and system-based RTW interventions. Source: Institute for Work & Health
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The Canadian Occupational Performance Measure (COMP)
The Canadian Occupational Performance Measure is an evidence-based outcome measure designed to capture a client’s self-perception of performance in everyday living, over time. Originally published in 1991, it is used in over 40 countries and has been translated into more than 35 languages. Source: COMP
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Working Together: Successful strategies for return to work
This evidence-based tool, developed by the Institute for Work & Health in collaboration with the Ontario Society of Occupational Therapists and College of Occupational Therapists of Ontario, is designed for occupational therapists in work practice. Drawing from the popular Seven “Principles” for Successful Return to Work, this tool consolidates the principles into four stages reflecting occupational therapy practice processes. Source: Institute for Work & Health
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About presenter

Dr. Behdin Nowrouzi-Kia is an occupational therapist and assistant professor in the Department of Occupational Therapy and Occupational Science at the University of Toronto, where he also holds the inaugural Emily Geldsaler Grant Early Career Professorship in Workplace Mental Health.

Through an occupational lens, his research program is a systematic study of work disability prevention, return to work and disability management. His approach is designed to produce results directly applicable to identifying and assessing risk, and to developing interventions for preventing or improving high-risk behaviours in the workplace.

Nowrouzi-Kia’s work is motivated by efforts in work disability prevention that extend beyond efforts to prevent or cure diseases from a purely physical perspective to more holistic approaches. The major tenets of his work use a biopsychosocial perspective to understand work disability and incorporate personal characteristics (e.g. psychosocial) and environmental (e.g., health-care system, workplace, workers’ compensation system) factors in improving health outcomes.

Case presentations

Most of the learning in ECHO happens through presenting and discussing case presentations. If you have a case you would like to present, please submit a completed case presentation form to the ECHO OEM project coordinator.

Physicians presenting a case may bill OHIP for case conferences (billing codes K707 or K701).