ACOEM's Work Disability Prevention Report and The 60 Summits Project

"Preventing Needless Work Disability by Helping People Stay Employed" is the title of a recent American College of Occupational and Environmental Medicine's report. It lays out clearly the process that determines whether and how people with medical conditions can minimize the life disruption caused by illness and injuries, especially on their work - what we call the stay-at-work and return-to-work process (or SAW / RTW process). It also makes recommendations for how to improve the way that process works today.

The report provides a blueprint for how to help working people cope best with the impact of medical conditions on their daily lives as well as how to improve outcomes for both work-related and non-occupational disability programs.

An executive summary and short overview of the paper, along with a list of the authors and some brief background material, can be found in Dr. Jennifer Christian's Introduction to the New Work Disability Prevention Paradigm. The official ACOEM report has no executive summary and is 20 pages long. The full report is available here or on ACOEM's website at www.acoem.org. On the ACOEM website, select "Policies and Position Statements", then "Guidance Statements", and then "Preventing Needless Work Disability by Helping People Stay Employed".

Now, Dr. Christian, president of Webility, has created a grassroots 60 Summits Project, a bold plan to use the ACOEM work disability prevention report to catalyze positive changes in workers' compensation and disability benefits programs in 50 US states and 10 Canadian provinces. To learn more, click here.