Vocational rehabilitation

doi:10.1136/bmj.323.7322.1186

BMJ 2001;323:1186 ( 17 November )

Letters

Vocational rehabilitation

New training and funding strategies are needed

Proposed national vocational rehabilitation institute is step in right direction

Armed services may provide model

New training and funding strategies are needed

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

EDITOR $---$ In their editorial Disler and Pallant discussed vocational rehabilitation.¹ Since the publication in 1991 of itssurvey of blind and partially sighted people in Britain¹ theRoyal National Institute for the Blind (RNIB) has been concernedabout the lack of support for retention in employment in the UnitedKingdom.² This publication raised awareness of the incidenceof visually impaired people who gave up work after the onset ofsight difficulties and remainedunemployed.

In the early 1990s the RNIB funded a research and development project called "Disability Leave," which drew on the experienceof 18 employers who piloted best practice retention policies developedduring the life of the project. The final report of this projectwas published in 1995.³ It recommended that, where no employmentsolutions are found by employer and employee, a specialist employmentadviser should be asked to carry out an initial assessment. Ifthe employee needs a . . . [Full text of this article]