Abstract

The construction sector is associated with a particularly high rate of work-related low back pain. In order to improve these workers’ return-to-work prognosis, the “Partners in the return to work” project was developed jointly by the CSST and CAPRIT (Centre for Action in Work Disability and Rehabilitation, Charles-LeMoyne Hospital). Its aim was to develop and test an early management program for injured workers by promoting direct collaboration between the rehabilitation counsellor and CAPRIT’s interdisciplinary clinical team.

The authors evaluated whether this type of management would actually improve the sustainable return to work of injured people. They therefore compared the results obtained from two groups of workers, with one group receiving the early collaboration program, and the other, the usual treatments.

The way it was implemented, the early collaboration program was no more effective than the usual treatment for accelerating consolidation, for reducing the costs accordingly, and for improving the workers’ health status. This could be due to program implementation difficulties (report R-489) and particularly to the difficulties encountered in the field during collaboration between the different partners (employers, unions, CSST, attending physician and rehabilitation team). Other explanatory aspects could be related to the construction sector’s requirements and characteristics, the outcomes of many file contestations, the nature of the intervention program, or the study’s methodological limitations. The authors believe that the implementation of a return-to-work program is complex and that even more studies are needed to better understand the obstacles.