Returning to work after a period of sickness
absence can be daunting for both employee and employer. It is
important to reinforce the key message that all the evidence shows
returning to work can actually aid recovery. The longer
someone is out of the workplace, the more difficult it becomes for
them to return to work and the less likely it is that they will
return to work at all.
It is not necessary, or realistic, that that
your patient feels 100% fit before returning to the
workplace. It may mean that the return to work is done in a
phased or staged fashion – just because returning to work is good
for recovery, doesn’t mean this has to be straight back into full
time work. Nor does it mean that the work they return to is
exactly the same in the nature of the tasks or the
environment. This links to and builds on the assessment you
have made of the contribution that the workplace has made to your
patient’s condition as part of the clinical assessment.
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Encourage your
patients to keep in touch with their employer during sickness
absence