Collaboration Between Workplace and Occupational Health as the Enabler of Rehabilitees’ Work-Related Rehabilitation Process
Abstract
Finnish Social Insurance Institution launched a developmental project (2012–2014) in which a new way of conducting vocational rehabilitation was developed. This work-related rehabilitation aimed at close collaboration with employers, employees, Occupational Health (OHS) and rehabilitation services. In this study, which is part of the evaluation research project related to the developmental project, the aim was to clarify, what kind of cooperation between workplaces and OHS did occur, how the multiagency cooperation succeeded and what consequences this did have to the rehabilitation? Data was gathered from the ten workplaces attending to the project, from where the representative of the Human Resources (HR) had been interviewed during the evaluation research project. Data from their OHS’s professionals were collected by two questionnaires and from five focus group interviews. Also, we could include to this study outcomes of five rehabilitees’ processes. The project has been evaluated by using multiple-constituency approach. Multiple data was jointly used in researchers’ collaboration during the steps of analysis. In cooperation with the workplace and the OHS the level of the recognition for the different needs of support and rehabilitation, and ways of cooperation varied a lot. Critical phases in respect of the distribution of the flow of the information seemed to be the changes of personnel at the HR or the reversal of the OHS provider. Though the HR was active in multiagency cooperation the supervisors didn’t necessarily were ready for the cooperation needed at the workplace and with the employees. The case management role was not fully recognized in OHS during the developmental project though many new impacts of complex collaboration was received both to employees and to processes of OH. In the multiagency collaboration the clarity of roles and tasks promotes rehabilitees in their rehabilitation processes, but the quality of collaboration seem to be fundamentally important.
Authors
Pirjo Juvonen-Posti, Riitta Seppänen-Järvelä, Sanna Pesonen, Minna Savinainen, Maire Laaksonen, Simo Kaleva
Additional Information
- Peer-Reviewed: yes.
- Open Access: no.
- Cite as: Juvonen-Posti, P., Seppänen-Järvelä, R., Pesonen, S., Savinainen, M., Laaksonen, M., & Kaleva, S. (2015). Työterveysyhteistyö kuntoutumisen mahdollistajana. Kuntoutus, 38(3), 28–41. https://journal.fi/kuntoutus/article/view/125420
