New understanding of what work disability leave can mean to an employee now casts a shadow on what was the silver lining of disability benefits.
"There's really no advantage to being off of work for extended periods of time from a financial standpoint, from a physical standpoint and from a mental health standpoint," WSI communications executive Mark Armstrong said. "I think often in the worker's compensation system over the past years, there's been this notion that 'Hey, I've gotten hurt, but I get to stay home for awhile. This is a good thing.' It's not a good thing."
Workforce Safety & Insurance sponsored four summits across the state this week to spark a shift in conventional thinking in regard to long-term disability leave.
"We are trying to shift that thinking and we need help. We can't do that simply as an agency," Armstrong added. "We need help from the medical providers and the employers. We need to re-educate workers to think about it differently. They need to be the ones who realize how detrimental it can be."
Dr. Jennifer Christian was the presenter for the summit which emphasized the importance of employees returning to work as soon as they are able, even if that means assuming light duty. The importance is significant to not only the individual, but also the employer and even the economy.
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"The three pillars of identity are body, work and family," Christian said. "When there is an injury that puts that individual out of work, it hurts all three and getting them back in the saddle helps restore that sense of identity."
Inactivity has also been shown to slow healing process rather than help.
"We know much more now than we did 20 years ago about how important it is to stay active," Christian said. "Now, new mothers are told to get up and out of bed as soon as they can, rather than being on bed rest for days. Surgical patients are up and walking the day after and even the day of surgery. That activity has been shown to help with healing."
Another detriment to the individual, is the loss of earnings over a lifetime, Christian said. This not only affects the employee, it has a ripple effect throughout the economy.
"If we want the United States to stay economically competitive, and if we want North Dakota to stay competitive among the states, we need to have a workforce that is here and on the job instead of receiving public benefits," Christian said.
There is also an issue of urgency. Several studies have shown that after 12 weeks of absence, employees only have a 50 percent chance of ever returning to work.
"There is an assumption out there that the employee is in charge of this episode of their life ,and they know how to get healthcare and they know how to get back to work on their own," Christian said. "The employer, insurer and the medical providers sort of just watch this person and answer passively and only respond when things get out of whack.
"What we've found is the stay-at-work/return-to-work process is really a team sport and that the employer and the doctor and the insurer all have a responsibility to help people through what is a very difficult episode in their life."
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Stay-at-work/return-to-work is a sequence of questions, actions and decisions made separately by several parties that, taken together as a whole, determines the outcome of a health-related employment situation.
The process is described in a report published by the American College of Occupational and Environmental Medicine. A set of 16 guidelines is included in the report titled "Preventing Needless Work Disability by Helping People Stay Employed."
"A lot of the recommendations and the guidelines have to do with education; public education, education of workers, unions, judges, legislators, employers and health care providers," Christian said. "This is really a thought-changing process. Once people start thinking differently, they start acting differently, and once a whole bunch of people start thinking and acting differently, then the whole system will gradually be transformed."
