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Return to Work After Severe Traumatic Brain Injury in Diverse Labour Market and Welfare State Contexts

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New Dynamics of Disability and Rehabilitation

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Abstract

This chapter reviews the rates and predictors of return to work (RTW) after severe traumatic brain injury (TBI) in Denmark, and compares RTW rates across numerous countries. While differences can be attributed to a multitude of methodological differences, including how RTW is defined and the type of data available, we argue that countries can be roughly categorized in terms of RTW performance. The comparative assessment discusses studies from Northern European countries representing social democratic (Denmark and Norway) and conservative-corporatist models (France and the Netherlands), as well as available data from a liberal welfare state overseas (USA). Complementing studies from these Global North countries, a study from Brazil is also included. The analysis reveals that RTW is lower in Denmark and Norway compared to other countries. One plausible explanation is that the welfare state institutional setting partly exempts employers from responsibilities towards job seekers with disabilities. We address the RTW challenges for severe TBI survivors in the context of inappropriate work opportunities and an increasing requirement for highly skilled workers in the labour market. Finally, we propose potential strategies for Nordic countries to improve RTW outcomes after severe TBI.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    We used the following search string: ‘Craniocerebral Trauma’ [MeSH] AND (‘Employment, Supported’ [MeSH] OR ‘Employment’ [MeSH] OR ‘Return to Work’ [MeSH] OR ‘Rehabilitation, Vocational’ [MeSH]).

  2. 2.

    The flexicurity model is primarily associated with the Danish system, but a broader perspective on flexibility, considering not only degrees of employment protection but also the general regulatory system for doing business, suggests that all the Nordic countries are characterized by flexicurity. The flexicurity label is also applied to the Dutch case, but here the element of flexibility concerns the deregulation of part-time, fixed-term, and agency work, as well as the encouragement of leave schemes (Wilthagen and Tros 2004). These differences may be important, as we shall discuss later in this chapter.

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Acknowledgements

This chapter reproduces, in part, material published in Odgaard, Johnsen, Pedersen, and Nielsen (2017a), Odgaard, Johnsen, Stubbs, et al. (2017b), and Odgaard, Pedersen, et al. (2018). As such, we acknowledge our earlier co-authors and thank them for their contributions to this work.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Hammel Neurorehabilitation and Research Center, Aarhus University, Hammel, Denmark

    Lene Odgaard

  2. Department of Social Work, Child Welfare and Social Policy, Oslo Metropolitan University, Oslo, Norway

    Ivan Harsløf

  3. Graduate School of Health, Discipline of Physiotherapy, University of Technology Sydney, Sydney, NSW, Australia

    Peter W. Stubbs

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  1. Lene Odgaard
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  2. Ivan Harsløf
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  3. Peter W. Stubbs
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Correspondence to Lene Odgaard .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Social Work, Child Welfare and Social Policy, Oslo Metropolitan University, Oslo, Norway

    Ivan Harsløf

  2. Department of Neurorehabilitation Rigshospitalet, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark

    Ingrid Poulsen

  3. Department of Learning and Philosophy, Aalborg University Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark

    Kristian Larsen

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Odgaard, L., Harsløf, I., Stubbs, P.W. (2019). Return to Work After Severe Traumatic Brain Injury in Diverse Labour Market and Welfare State Contexts. In: Harsløf, I., Poulsen, I., Larsen, K. (eds) New Dynamics of Disability and Rehabilitation. Palgrave Macmillan, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-7346-6_7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-7346-6_7

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