Interventions to help people get back to work

SBU has investigated the scientific basis for interventions aimed at helping people who for various reasons are far from the labor market, to return to work.

One of the reports concerns the group of adults on long-term social assistance. The results show that workplace-based training, as well as more comprehensive education, is likely to result in more people becoming employed, compared with usual practices or no intervention.

“Even within this vulnerable group, we now see that training leads to employment. But this does not apply to just any training, but specifically training in a workplace, linked to a real job,” says Elizabeth Åhsberg, project manager at SBU.

Internships in regular municipal services also seem to result in more people becoming employed, compared with internships outside regular work activities.

The second report examined the effect of work-directed interventions for people on long- term sick leave due to anxiety, depression, or reactions to severe stress – the most common causes of long-term sick leave in Sweden.

The results show that cognitive behavioral therapy and team-based support, in both cases including workplace involvement, may increase the number of people returning to work compared with care as usual or no intervention.

“Occupational health services can play an important role here, such as providing team-based support to employees on long-term sick leave,” says Elizabeth Åhsberg.

SBU has also examined how interventions offered by health services to people who are on or at risk of long-term sick leave can support their return to work. The evaluation covered common causes of long-term sick leave, which are mainly psychological and musculoskeletal disorders.

The included studies were shown to examine many different interventions that were evaluated in many different ways, making it difficult to compile the results. “Nevertheless, important conclusions can be drawn,” says Per Lytsy, project manager at SBU.

“There is evidence that different categories of interventions can have beneficial effects on return to work, and these are largely interventions and methods already used in Swedish healthcare today,” he says.
Categories shown to have a beneficial effect, compared with customary care, include unimodal interventions (individual treatments or therapies), multimodal interventions (several treatment interventions are provided, often by a multi-professional team) and interventions involving workplace contact, either directly or through a coordinator.

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