[The physician's role in dealing with patients unemployed for a long time].

When medical practitioners examine unemployed persons, important considerations are medical and social diagnoses, risk factors and a possible need for counselling. Certification of illness and applications for rehabilitation or a disability pension are ambiguous and difficult tasks in the Norwegian health insurance system. Important measures are better unemployment benefits, more activation of unemployed persons, better educational opportunities, more information on health and unemployment, and a special health maintenance programme for long-term unemployed.