Author(s) |
Farrell, Hayley
Coventry, William
Dunstan, Debra
|
Publication Date |
2022-02-03
|
Abstract |
<p>Work plays an important role in people’s lives and, according to the World Health Organization,
is one of the most powerful social determinants of health and wellbeing. For many individuals, the
inability to return to work (RTW) after an injury or illness imposes significant personal and
economic costs. While most workers RTW within a relatively short period of time, a small
percentage of disability episodes are prolonged, disproportionately costly, and a significant
socioeconomic burden on Western nations. In Australia, employers appoint RTW coordinators to
manage the RTW process. Therefore, RTW coordinators are well positioned to play a central role
in supporting injured workers to RTW. While numerous predictive and clinical decision support
tools exist, none of these have been designed to be used by RTW coordinators, limiting their
access to evidence-based best practices. The aim of this empirical work was to develop and
validate a tool for RTW coordinators to assist them in the identification of workers at risk of
prolonged work disability so that limited resources can be directed towards those most in need.
Using theoretically derived and clinically meaningful risk factors, expert consultation, and
multivariate statistical analysis, the return-to-work/case management inventory (RTW/CMI) was
developed and validated. Part 1 of the RTW/CMI is a brief nine-item inventory that can be easily
administered by RTW coordinators. The results demonstrated that the RTW/CMI has strong
predictive accuracy discriminating between workers with low and high risk of prolonged work
disability. While Part 1 of the inventory represents an effort to identify workers at high risk for
long-term work disability, most importantly, based on an injured worker’s level of risk and need
profile, parts 2 through 5 of the inventory guide appropriate resource allocation and service
delivery to best support injured workers in their recovery and RTW. While future research will
establish whether administering the RTW/CMI leads to improved outcomes for injured workers,
the combined results of this thesis help to bridge the gap between research and application by
empowering RTW coordinators to implement evidence-based actions early in the recovery
process to ultimately reduce both the personal and socioeconomic burden associated with
prolonged work disability.</p>
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Link | |
Publisher |
University of New England
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Title |
Development and Validation of the Return-To-Work/Case Management Inventory
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Type of document |
Thesis Doctoral
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Entity Type |
Publication
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