UBC CPD: Partners in Care: Bolstering Patient Care and Return to Work Through a WorkSafeBC/Physician Collaboration Webinar

A PRESENTATION BY WORKSAFEBC’S MEDICAL SERVICES AND CASE MANAGEMENT SERVICES TEAM

There’s consensus across multiple disciplines about the value of returning to work for injured workers — it’s healthy, it contributes to recovery, and it leads to better health outcomes.

Yet not all injured workers reap the health benefits of work. Some recover at home for extended periods — inactive and isolated from their co-workers, social networks, and regular routines — placing them at higher risk of depression, substance use disorders, obesity, heart attacks, and suicide.

A collaborative initiative with B.C.’s physicians and other health care practitioners aims to improve return-to-work outcomes for their patients. If there are no concrete plans for a patient to return to some form of employment eight weeks following the date of their injury, our team now contacts the treatment provider to discuss opportunities for additional treatment or rehabilitation, obstacles to the patient’s recovery, and potential work opportunities if the patient isn’t yet ready to return to regular duties.