Izabela Z. Schultz - Böcker

Chronic back and neck pain. Whiplash. Fibromyalgia. Carpal tunnel syndrome. Intractable headaches. Depression. Anxiety and posttraumatic stress. Concussion. More than ever, the term workplace disabilities is synonymous with greater clinical and case management complexity and escalating personal, social, occupational and economic cost. Complex illnesses and injuries that defy a traditional medical management model continue to baffle medical, mental health, rehabilitation, compensation, corporate, and legal professionals despite new advances in diagnosis, prevention, and rehabilitation. The Handbook of Complex Occupational Disability Claims: Early Risk Identification, Intervention and Prevention cuts through the confusion by integrating current theories and findings into a state-of-the-art tool for critical thinking, decision making, and effective practice.A book that synthesizes so many diverse viewpoints has the potential to influence both policy and practice across disciplines and cut through politicization of these still poorly understood conditions with evidence. The Handbook is important reading for all clinicians, professionals, and members of rehabilitation and disability management teams, across healthcare, occupational and compensation settings.

Chronic back and neck pain. Whiplash. Fibromyalgia. Carpal tunnel syndrome. Intractable headaches. Depression. Anxiety and posttraumatic stress. Concussion. More than ever, the term workplace disabilities is synonymous with greater clinical and case management complexity and escalating personal, social, occupational and economic cost. Complex illnesses and injuries that defy a traditional medical management model continue to baffle medical, mental health, rehabilitation, compensation, corporate, and legal professionals despite new advances in diagnosis, prevention, and rehabilitation. The Handbook of Complex Occupational Disability Claims: Early Risk Identification, Intervention and Prevention cuts through the confusion by integrating current theories and findings into a state-of-the-art tool for critical thinking, decision making, and effective practice. This clear-sighted, interdisciplinary and integrative volume goes beyond cataloguing symptoms or sorting legitimate from fraudulent cases--its emphasis is on early detection of risk and management to prevent injury from developing into long-term disability.Editors Schultz and Gatchel and their 49 expert contributors offer lucid evaluations of the scientific and clinical literature to repair the mind/body split that has traditionally defined this field: - Conceptual and methodological issues in the prediction of disability - Biopsychosocial perspectives on the most prevalent disabling conditions, including chronic pain syndromes, repetitive strain injuries, depression, anxiety, traumatic brain injury, and posttraumatic stress disorder - Application of clinical findings to the rehabilitation, disability management, occupational and compensation arenas, and return-to-work practices - In-depth discussion of the relationship between impairment and work disability - Specific evidence-based early intervention approaches for workers and patients at risk A book that synthesizes so many diverse viewpoints has the potential to influence both policy and practice across disciplines and cut through politicization of these still poorly understood conditions with evidence.The Handbook is important reading for all clinicians, professionals, and members of rehabilitation and disability management teams, across healthcare, occupational and compensation settings.

Growing interest in the field of mental health in the workplace among policy makers, clinicians, and researchers alike has been fueled by equal employment rights legislation and increasing disability statistics in mental heath. The importance of addressing this topic is underscored by the fact that depression now ranks second on the hierarchy of occupational disabilities. The problem is compounded by a host of factors, including major difficulties in job retention and productivity experienced by persons with mental health disabilities; younger age and higher education of persons with mental health problems; and labor shortages and an aging workforce in many industrialized countries. In addition, particularly in the United States, the vocational needs of army veterans returning from duty with mental health disorders require system-based solutions and new rehabilitation approaches.The pressure created by these powerful legislative, societal, and economic forces has not been matched by the state of evidence-based practices in the field of employment retention and job accommodation in mental health. Current research evidence is fragmented, limited in scope, difficult to access, and adversely affected by the traditional divide between the fields of psychiatry and psychology on one hand and interdisciplinary employment research and practices on the other. As a result, policy makers, employers, disability compensation systems, and rehabilitation and disability management professionals have been left without a critical "how to" evidence-informed toolbox for occupational practices to accommodate and retain persons with mental health disabilities in the workplace. Currently, no single source of knowledge and research evidence exists in the field that would guide best practices. Yet the need for workplace accommodations for persons with mental health disabilities has been growing and, based on epidemiological trends, is anticipated to grow even more in the future. These trends leave physicians, psychologists, occupational therapists, vocational rehabilitation professionals, disability managers, human resource professionals, and policy makers poorly prepared to face the challenge of integrating and maintaining persons with mental health disabilities in the workplace.The aim of the Handbook is to close the gap between the needs of the professionals and networks that work with or study persons with mental heath disorders in an employment context and the actual knowledge base in the field. The Handbook will be written in language that can easily be understood by readers representing a multitude of disciplines and research paradigms spanning the mental health, rehabilitation, and employment fields of inquiry. The Handbook will contribute an integration of the best quantitative and qualitative research in the field, together with experts’ consensus, regarding effective work retention and accommodation strategies and practices in mental health.The book will consist of five major sections, divided into chapters written by recognized experts in these areas.

Growing interest in the field of mental health in the workplace among policy makers, clinicians, and researchers alike has been fueled by equal employment rights legislation and increasing disability statistics in mental heath.

This book integrates the growing clinical research evidence related to the emerging transdisciplinary field of occupational health and wellness. It includes a wide range of important topics, ranging from current conceptual approaches to health and wellness in the workplace, to common problems in the workplace such as presenteeism/abstenteeism, common illnesses, job-related burnout, to prevention and intervention methods. It consists of five major parts. Part I, “Introduction and Overviews,” provides an overview and critical evaluation of the emerging conceptual models that are currently driving the clinical research and practices in the field. This serves as the initial platform to help better understand the subsequent topics to be discussed. Part II, “Major Occupational Symptoms and Disorders,” exposes the reader to the types of critical occupational health risks that have been well documented, as well as the financial and productivity losses associated with them. In Part III, “Evaluation of Occupational Causes and Risks to Workers’ Health,” a comprehensive evaluation of these risks and causes of such occupational health threats is provided. This leads to Part IV, “Prevention and Intervention Methods,” which delineates methods to prevent or intervene with these potential occupational health issues. Part V, “Research, Evaluation, Diversity and Practice,” concludes the book with the review of epidemiological, measurement, diversity, policy, and practice issues–with guidelineson changes that are needed to decrease the economic and health care impact of illnesses in the workplace, and recommendations for future. All chapters provide a balance among theoretical models, current best-practice guidelines, and evidence-based documentation of such models and guidelines. The contributors were carefully selected for their unique knowledge, as well as their ability to meaningfully present this information in a comprehensive manner. As such, this Handbook is of great interest and use to health care and rehabilitation professionals, management and human resource personnel, researchers and academicians alike.

This comprehensive interdisciplinary synthesis focuses on the clinical and occupational intervention processes enabling workers to return to their jobs and sustain employment after injury or serious illness as well as ideas for improving the wide range of outcomes of entry and re-entry into the workplace. Information is accessible along key theoretical, research, and interventive lines, emphasizing a palette of evidence-informed approaches to return to work and stay at work planning and implementation, in the context of disability prevention. Condition-specific chapters detail best return to work and stay at work practices across diverse medical and psychological diagnoses, from musculoskeletal disorders to cancer, from TBI to PTSD. The resulting collection bridges the gap between research evidence and practice and gives readers necessary information from a range of critical perspectives.Among the featured topics:Understanding motivation to return to work: economy of gains and losses.Overcoming barriers to return to work: behavioral and cultural change.Program evaluation in return to work: an integrative framework.Working with stakeholders in return to work processes.Return to work after major limb loss.Improving work outcomes among cancer survivors.Return to work among women with fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue syndrome. The Handbook of Return to Work is an invaluable, unique and comprehensive resource for health, rehabilitation, clinical, counselling and industrial psychologists, rehabilitation specialists, occupational and physical therapists, family and primary care physicians, psychiatrists and physical medicine and rehabilitation as well as occupational medicine specialists, case and disability managers and human resource professionals. Academics and researchers across these fields will also find expert guidance and direction in these pages. It is an essential reading for all return to work and stay at work stakeholders.

This book integrates the growing clinical research evidence related to the emerging transdisciplinary field of occupational health and wellness. In Part III, “Evaluation of Occupational Causes and Risks to Workers’ Health,” a comprehensive evaluation of these risks and causes of such occupational health threats is provided.

This comprehensive interdisciplinary synthesis focuses on the clinical and occupational intervention processes enabling workers to return to their jobs and sustain employment after injury or serious illness as well as ideas for improving the wide range of outcomes of entry and re-entry into the workplace. Information is accessible along key theoretical, research, and interventive lines, emphasizing a palette of evidence-informed approaches to return to work and stay at work planning and implementation, in the context of disability prevention. Condition-specific chapters detail best return to work and stay at work practices across diverse medical and psychological diagnoses, from musculoskeletal disorders to cancer, from TBI to PTSD. The resulting collection bridges the gap between research evidence and practice and gives readers necessary information from a range of critical perspectives.Among the featured topics:Understanding motivation to return to work: economy of gains and losses.Overcoming barriers to return to work: behavioral and cultural change.Program evaluation in return to work: an integrative framework.Working with stakeholders in return to work processes.Return to work after major limb loss.Improving work outcomes among cancer survivors.Return to work among women with fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue syndrome. The Handbook of Return to Work is an invaluable, unique and comprehensive resource for health, rehabilitation, clinical, counselling and industrial psychologists, rehabilitation specialists, occupational and physical therapists, family and primary care physicians, psychiatrists and physical medicine and rehabilitation as well as occupational medicine specialists, case and disability managers and human resource professionals. Academics and researchers across these fields will also find expert guidance and direction in these pages. It is an essential reading for all return to work and stay at work stakeholders.

This book addresses the complexity of preventing, diagnosing, and treating musculoskeletal pain and disability disorders in the workplace.

This progressive reference redefines qualitative research as a crucial component of evidence-based practice and assesses its current and future impact on healthcare. Its introductory section explains the value of sociocultural context in case conceptualization, and ways this evidence can be integrated with quantitative findings to inform and transform practice. The bulk of the book's chapters review qualitative research in diverse  areas, including pain, trauma, heart disease, COPD, and disabling conditions, and examine ways of effectively evaluating and applying qualitative data. This seismic shift in perception moves the healing professions away from traditional one-size-fits-all thinking and toward responsive, patient-centered care.Among the topics in the Handbook:·Examining qualitative alternatives to categorical representation.·The World Health Organization model of health: what evidence is needed?·Qualitative research in mental health and mental illness.·Qualitative evidence in pediatrics.·The contribution of qualitative research to medication adherence.·Qualitative evidence in health policy analysis.The Handbook of Qualitative Health Research for Evidence-Based Practice offers health and clinical psychologists, rehabilitation specialists,occupational and physical therapists, nurses, family physicians and other primary care providers new ways for understanding patients' health-related experiences and opens up new ways for developing interventions intended to improve health outcomes.

This book addresses the complexity of preventing, diagnosing, and treating musculoskeletal pain and disability disorders in the workplace.

This progressive reference redefines qualitative research as a crucial component of evidence-based practice and assesses its current and future impact on healthcare. Its introductory section explains the value of sociocultural context in case conceptualization, and ways this evidence can be integrated with quantitative findings to inform and transform practice. The bulk of the book's chapters review qualitative research in diverse  areas, including pain, trauma, heart disease, COPD, and disabling conditions, and examine ways of effectively evaluating and applying qualitative data. This seismic shift in perception moves the healing professions away from traditional one-size-fits-all thinking and toward responsive, patient-centered care.Among the topics in the Handbook:·Examining qualitative alternatives to categorical representation.·The World Health Organization model of health: what evidence is needed?·Qualitative research in mental health and mental illness.·Qualitative evidence in pediatrics.·The contribution of qualitative research to medication adherence.·Qualitative evidence in health policy analysis.The Handbook of Qualitative Health Research for Evidence-Based Practice offers health and clinical psychologists, rehabilitation specialists,occupational and physical therapists, nurses, family physicians and other primary care providers new ways for understanding patients' health-related experiences and opens up new ways for developing interventions intended to improve health outcomes.