BMJ 2001;323:121-123 ( 21 July )

Editorials

Vocational rehabilitation

Everybody gains if injured workers are helped back into work

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

Blessed is he who has found his work; let him ask no other blessedness" wrote Carlyle.1 However, according to a report published last year from the British Society of Rehabilitation Medicine,2 British workers who are injured or ill find it difficult to return to this happy state, and society helps them little in their quest. The report, written by a multidisciplinary working group which explored practices in the NHS, the Employment Service, and industry that impede the return to employment of those with a recent injury, illness, or disability, makes interesting, if sobering, reading.

The need is clear: an average of 3000 British people move on to incapacity benefits weekly, and the social and economic costs of this are enormous (reaching £10bn a year3). The leading causes are familiar to any general practitioner: musculoskeletal injury (28%), psychiatric disorders (20%), and diseases of the circulatory system. Although vocational rehabilitation has been . . . [Full text of this article]
Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Complore Complore   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us   Add to Digg Digg   Add to Reddit Reddit   Add to StumbleUpon StumbleUpon   Add to Technorati Technorati    What's this?

Relevant Article

Vocational rehabilitation
Gillian Paschkes-Bell, Jonathan Leach, Ian McCurdie, and Nick Carter
BMJ 2001 323: 1186. [Extract] [Full Text]

This article has been cited by other articles:

  • Frank, A. O, Sawney, P. (2003). Vocational rehabilitation. JRSM 96: 522-524 [Full text]  
  • Verbeek, J, Spelten, E, Kammeijer, M, Sprangers, M (2003). Return to work of cancer survivors: a prospective cohort study into the quality of rehabilitation by occupational physicians. Occup. Environ. Med. 60: 352-357 [Abstract] [Full text]  
  • Paschkes-Bell, G., Leach, J., McCurdie, I., Carter, N. (2001). Vocational rehabilitation. BMJ 323: 1186-1186 [Full text]  

Rapid Responses:

Read all Rapid Responses

plus ca change
W R Harris
bmj.com, 22 Jul 2001 [Full text]
Fix the person and their job (as recommended by Chambers and Maxwell)
Chris Manning
bmj.com, 23 Jul 2001 [Full text]
vocational rehabilitation, the way forward.
Pradeep Deshpande
bmj.com, 24 Jul 2001 [Full text]
Proposed National Vocational Rehabiliation Institute
Jonathan Leach
bmj.com, 25 Jul 2001 [Full text]
Groundwork on Retention in the UK
Gillian Paschkes-Bell
bmj.com, 25 Jul 2001 [Full text]
Download address for citation 9
Nerida Wallace
bmj.com, 26 Jul 2001 [Full text]
Setting occupational standards in vocational rehabilitation
Philippa Simkiss
bmj.com, 7 Aug 2001 [Full text]
Vocational Rehabilitation in the Armed Services
Ian McCurdie
bmj.com, 14 Aug 2001 [Full text]
Access jobs at BMJ Careers
Whats new online at Student BMJ