REHABKOORDINATORNS ROLL Att främja arbetsåtergång och därmed förkorta rehabiliteringsprocessen hos personer med stressrelaterad psykisk ohälsa

Abstract

Background Stress-related mental disorder has globally gradually increased in recent decades and is today the most common cause of sick leave. Various actions to promote sickness absence have been proposed, some of them within the healthcare sector. There are great opportunities in assisting and supporting people in the sick leave and rehabilitation process through early collaborations between health care, the Social Insurance Office and employers, thereby enabling the person to return or stay in work. The Rehabilitation coordinator is working in the healthcare sector with a focus on coordinating rehabilitation and interventions in connection with sick leave. But still, there is a need for increased knowledge about factors preventing too long sickness spells. Aim The purpose of this study was to investigate rehabilitation coordinators' perceptions of what promotes returning to work and therefore shortening the rehabilitation process in people who are on sick leave because of stress-related mental disorders. Method The study is based on seven semi-structured interviews with rehab coordinators. These were analyzed based on an inductive approach with qualitative content analysis. Result: What the rehab coordinators believe promotes return to the work can be divided into four main categories; “The content and structure of the interventions”, “Commitment of the person himself and the employer”, “Collaboration between different actors in the rehabilitation process”, and “Tools for employee change”. Conclusion Given the improvement suggestions that emerged from the interviews in the study, there is a need to evaluate the work and further improve the rehab coordinator's assignment. The suggestions for improvement described are about starting the rehabilitation process at an even earlier stage, involving the employer to a greater extent and improving the conditions for good cooperation between different actors.