[An integrated concept for vocational rehabilitation of brain injured patients--a catamnestic study of occupational outcome 1 to 2 years later].

Presented is a vocational reintegration concept for clients following craniocerebral trauma and other acquired brain damage. Close dovetailing of vocational and therapeutic measures is advocated, as it is mostly the neuropsychological disorders or problems in behaviour and emotional experience that stand in the way of returning to work. A work experience and adjustment setting holds particularly great potential for addressing these difficulties in a day-to-day life-related, remedial manner. Another focus is follow-up care of those clients who have returned to competitive employment. These clients are called on regularly at their workplace by programme vocational guidance/vocational assessment staff; necessary adaptations are carried out, difficulties dealt with, and possible solutions sought jointly with the employer. A catamnestic study was undertaken to verify how many of the clients included in the programme had achieved long-term resettlement. It was found that the great majority of those who had returned to their former job, have retained their employment some one to two years later, with most of them working at a lower level than before the event. Clients unable to return to their former employer had mostly been pensioned despite the presence of partial working capacity.