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The Finnish Social Insurance Institution finances rehabilitation for employees with work-related health problems. A development project aims to discover new practices in disability management to meet challenges of today’s working life. Different programmes by five rehabilitation provides are piloted in field-tests comprising about 500 rehabilitees.
Vocational rehabilitation in Finland is characterized by co-operation between occupational health (OH) provides and rehabilitation centers, by group-based in-patient rehabilitation interventions and by a multiprofessional team approach. Compared to conventional models, the pilot programmes feature a closer linkage between the workplace, rehabilitation centre and OH providers. The pilot programmes are characterized by diversity in methods of co-operation, variation of the contents and length of in-patient periods, and development of net-based solutions. In developing their pro-grammes, each service producer carries out 10 interventions (groups with 8-10 rehabilitees), with the last three interventions being implemented in a stabilized way.
Methods
The new ideas concerning work and working life connections in rehabilitation were in focus. Qualitative data were collected by means of focus group interviews with employees, OH providers, rehabilitation team members, and the employees´ supervisors. Individual outcomes for the rehabilitees were assessed before and after rehabilitation by questionnaires.
Results
Employees benefited from all the novel programmes implemented. Concrete changes at work had been done. The participation of the employees’ superiors in the process was perceived as useful. It seems important that all parties involved in the process should, from the outset, have a shared knowledge on the purpose of rehabilitation and of their respective roles, responsibilities and liability-ties. Also, the better the problems are defined at the beginning the more appropriate and timely intervention can be opted.
Discussion
The findings illustrate that involving the employees´ superiors and work communities in the rehabilitation process supports the continuity of rehabilitation at work. The final results will be available in 2012.