Vocational Rehabilitation
What is Vocational Rehabilitation?
Vocational rehabilitation involves any program which seeks to help and restore someone with a heath problem to their optimal physical, mental, social, vocational and economic ability. Thus enabling them to stay at, return to, and remain in work. In some instances, it may involve receiving training for a new occupation or locating a new job with a view to building permanent careers.
Early consideration of the injured person’s needs and identifying whether intervention will improve the present or long term situation together with the nature of that intervention is key. Rehabilitation can help injured people recover more quickly, have a better quality of life and return to work sooner.
Returning to work after injury or illness can have a hugely beneficial impact upon an injured person’s morale and self-esteem. Appropriate guidance, advice and support can enable this to happen. An assessment of an injured person’s experience, qualifications, aspirations and physical and mental state is therefore required as early as possible.
The pre-accident employer can assist in the assessment of whether a return to work is suitable and recommendations can be made regarding adaptations to the work place, job description and personal support.
If a return to the former place of work is not possible, then other local jobs, training schemes, educational programmes or work experience placements can be arranged.
In addition to services the state can provide there are also private organisations which can be used to assess the injured person’s needs. An independent expert will provide a report detailing the costs involved in obtaining the necessary rehabilitation which can be presented to an insurer for agreement. The costs of rehabilitation will be included in any damages recovered for the injured person.
We are Clarke Willmott can assist in securing early vocational rehabilitation assessments and support.
