Westmorland Muriel G, Buys Nicholas
School of Rehabilitation Science, McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada.
Work. 2004;23(1):31-41.
The health, well-being and productivity of workers and employers in today's society is becoming increasingly important. The social, emotional and economic costs of injury and illness are such that governments throughout the world are attempting to implement policies and practices to contain these costs. One response in this area is Disability Management (DM). DM focuses on the management of employees with work injuries or illnesses in the workplace rather than offsite in rehabilitation centres. Regional interest in the DM approach has now gained momentum in North America, Europe and the Asia-Pacific. This article briefly reviews two studies that were conducted in Australia and Canada (results have or are being published elsewhere). Although the two studies were not designed for comparison purposes they provide interesting and useful information about the similarities and differences in the practice of DM in Australia and Canada. Findings are compared in terms of five primary principles of DM and it is argued that it is important to understand the ecological contexts in which DM occurs as well as share trans-national research in this area to help inform policy and practice.
在当今社会，工人和雇主的健康、福祉及生产力正变得愈发重要。工伤和疾病所带来的社会、情感及经济成本高昂，以至于世界各国政府都在试图推行各项政策与措施以控制这些成本。在这一领域的一种应对方式是残疾管理（DM）。DM关注的是工作场所中遭受工伤或疾病的员工的管理，而非在康复中心进行的场外管理。目前，北美、欧洲和亚太地区对DM方法的区域关注度不断提升。本文简要回顾了在澳大利亚和加拿大开展的两项研究（结果已在其他地方发表或正在发表）。尽管这两项研究并非为比较目的而设计，但它们提供了关于澳大利亚和加拿大DM实践异同的有趣且有用的信息。根据DM的五项主要原则对研究结果进行了比较，并指出理解DM发生的生态环境以及分享该领域的跨国研究对于为政策和实践提供参考非常重要。
