Abstract
The experience of work and employment is universal; hence any form of disability that may affect work (i.e., work disability) becomes crucial. In this chapter, the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF) model of the World Health Organization (WHO) will be discussed, focusing on how the ICF model can help us understand and examine the broader context of work disability, vocational rehabilitation, and return to work process. The use of the ICF will be illustrated by state-of-the-art examples to concretize the ICF’s application, integration, and utility in return to work.
The ICF was intended by the WHO to be a universal reference framework when describing the functioning of an individual, which includes work functioning. With the biopsychosocial approach of the ICF, the conceptual definition of vocational rehabilitation has been recently provided. Also, the ICF Core Set (an essential set and short list of so-called ICF categories or domains of functioning) for Vocational Rehabilitation has been developed based on evidence and relevance to vocational rehabilitation. This ICF Core Set was the basis for the development of a recent patient-reported questionnaire called the Work Rehabilitation Questionnaire (WORQ) (www.myworq.org). Challenges in the measurement and operationalization of the ICF Core Set are presented and the opportunities and recent developments in using the ICF in other areas of return to work (such as functional capacity evaluation) are also discussed.
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Notes
- 1.
When there is not enough or insufficient information to rate an ICF category.
- 2.
When rating an ICF category is not applicable, e.g., assessing d830 higher education in an individual who is still in high school.
- 3.
Performance qualifier refers to what an individual does in his/her current environment or actual context in which they he/she lives; involves the influence of environmental factors.
- 4.
Capacity qualifier refers to an individual’s ability tested in a standard or uniform environment (i.e., adjusted for environment).
Abbreviations
- DOT:
-
Dictionary of occupational titles
- FCE:
-
Functional capacity evaluation
- ICF:
-
International classification of functioning disability and health
- MGS:
-
Minimal generic set
- RTW:
-
Return to work
- VR:
-
Vocational rehabilitation
- WHO:
-
World Health Organization
- WHO DAS 2.0:
-
World Health Organization-Disability Assessment Schedule version 2.0
- WHS:
-
World Health Survey
- WORQ:
-
Work Rehabilitation Questionnaire
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6.6 Appendix: Work Rehabilitation Questionnaire (WORQ). Retrieved from www.myworq.org
6.6 Appendix: Work Rehabilitation Questionnaire (WORQ). Retrieved from www.myworq.org
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Escorpizo, R., Finger, M.E., Reneman, M.F. (2016). Integration and Application of the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF) in Return to Work. In: Schultz, I., Gatchel, R. (eds) Handbook of Return to Work. Handbooks in Health, Work, and Disability, vol 1. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4899-7627-7_6
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