Helping workers help themselves: empowering physiotherapy clients to manage musculoskeletal problems at work

Abstract

There is increasing evidence that work is associated with positive health outcomes. Various strategies to retain or return patients to work with a musculoskeletal injury have been tested, but the role of the individual should also be considered. The worker is important to the overall success of the rehabilitation process so strategies to encourage or empower the individual to identify and solve some of their own return-to-work challenges need to be considered. The aim of this paper is to summarize the work conducted by the authors in the arena of work disability prevention and to provide practical suggestions for physiotherapists on how they can empower patients to help themselves remain at work or return to work safely and expeditiously. Empowerment of workers to attain occupational goals is discussed with suggestions on how the physiotherapist can facilitate this in their patients by: (1) encouraging workers to stay at work if at all possible; (2) making recommendations for work based on the assessed work capacity of the patient; and (3) determining the patient’s level of confidence in remaining or returning to full duties and hours given their current level of pain and disability.

Keywords:

• Empowerment
• Self-management
• Work disability prevention