Tools and Strategies that Promote the Return To Work and Stay At Work of people with disabilities. Contributions from Occupational Therapy and Other Disciplines Centered on The Biopsychosocial Approach.

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Background

The return to work (RTW) and stay at work (SAW) of people with disabilities is a topic of considerable importance in today's societies, for its impact on economic, social, welfare and sustainability aspects, as well as on the well-being of people with disabilities. Occupational Therapy (OT) is the discipline that by election helps persons restore functionality, in accordance with their residual abilities and their recovery goals, for participation in activities of real life contexts, leveraging workers' engagement and proactive behavior to match work demands. RTW and SAW represent areas in which OT, together with other disciplines centered on the biosychosocial approach to the person, can provide many important contributions, including technological ones, to improve the conditions of people with disabilities.

In relation to the portion of the population affected by acute or chronic disability, the success rate measured through RTW and SAW results is still very low. This is attributable to various factors, some of which are contingent on social conditions (e.g. rapid structural changes in the world of work, the massive irruption of technology into working methods and production processes, an increase in economic and social uncertainty), while others could be associated with defects due to an insufficient evolution of OT as an evaluative and therapeutic discipline. For example, OT does not always provide objective and practical tools and techniques to evaluate the patient's capabilities and performance in a concrete and ecological setting, or has developed strategic and procedural protocols to monitor and support the various phases of RTW. Similarly, the aspects inherent to the multidisciplinary and collaborative planning of the path that favors RTW and SAW, and the proposals for the design and redesign of adequate workplaces and for the adoption of assistive devices for the disabled person, are not fully explored. The progress of OT can be favored by a holistic approach to the person, by the availability of new technologies, as well as by the sharing of interdisciplinary knowledge associated with the functional assessment of the person's skills, the design of the work environment, as well as socialization and sustainability.

This research topic aims to highlight some of the latest trends and developments in the OT discipline and to outline contributions from several related fields (rehabilitation and clinical, but also social, economic and productive sciences) focusing on RTW and SAW of people with disabilities. Topics of interest include, but are not limited to, the following fields of application for OT:

1. OT strategies that favor the involvement of workers with disabilities and proactive behaviors to meet work needs, avoiding the risk of cognitive, biomechanical, physiological overload.

2. New OT assessment techniques (e.g. use of wearable sensors and artificial intelligence) for people with disabilities: diagnostic, predictive, programmatic and ecological validity of field measurements.

3. OT Considerations on the correspondence between work performance / capacity and work limitation.

4. Possibility of impact of the OT on the organizational, psychosocial and cognitive aspects of work that can favor the labor and social integration of workers with disabilities.

5. The use in OT of new technologies for the ergonomic adaptation of workstations, and for the proposal and adoption of aids and assistive technologies for people with disabilities.

6. The potential of the OT to bring together multidisciplinary skills in the context of RTW and SAW projects for people with disabilities.

Keywords: Disability, Return to Work, Stay at Work, Occupational Therapy, Technology

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