Employment after spinal cord injury: the impact of government policies in Canada (original) (raw)
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Journal of Vocational Rehabilitation, 2018
BACKGROUND: Spinal cord injury (SCI) is associated with unacceptably high unemployment rates that are impacted by the environment in which employment and vocational activities take place. To improve employment outcomes, we must continue to gather data allowing us to evaluate the effectiveness of policies and programs associated with successful employment from the perspective of persons with disabling conditions. OBJECTIVE: Identify key components of programs and federal and state level polices which support employment outcomes, as perceived by individuals with SCI who have worked since injury. METHODS: Qualitative approach using six focus groups at two sites. All participants (N = 44) had been employed at some point since injury. A semi-structured interview format asked questions about policies and program related factors influencing job attainment, maintenance, and advancement following SCI. Narratives were extracted into themes falling into the overlapping categories of policies, programs and awareness. RESULTS: Within programs, five themes emerged characterizing components of programs perceived to be significant in supporting employment: (1) support for education, (2) development of job seeking skills, including skills assessment; (3) job placement; (4) practical experience, and (5) instrumental support. Within policies, two themes were extracted related to policies focused on individuals and policies focused on changing the environment. Finally, within the category of awareness, themes reflect the importance of personal connections and self-advocacy. CONCLUSIONS: Policies and programs are not static factors but change and differ based on how they are understood, implemented, and reacted to in different places and by different groups. Researchers, program developers, and policy makers should consider how persons with SCI from diverse backgrounds and levels of impairment perceive and are supported by the varying programs and policies in their particular institution, region or state.
BACKGROUND: People with spinal cord injuries (SCI) are underrepresented in the labour force. OBJECTIVE: To examine the meaning of employment, as it is understood in the context of participation and integration in society, among persons with SCI in six European countries. We ask how SCI relates to employment, for the functions of employment, alternatives to employment, and its obstacles. METHOD: Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 74 persons and qualitatively analysed using a grounded theory approach. RESULTS: Employment was ranked as very important independent of the participants current employment status. We identified three main functions of employment: 1) employment contributes to the creation of personal and collective identity and social recognition; 2) employment enables structuring of time and distracts from impairment and pain; 3) employment is as an important social arena that facilitates interaction with other people. Voluntary work and domestic work did not fully replace the social functions of employment, nor correspond to the design of the disability compensation systems. CONCLUSION: This study illustrates the high value of employment and a need to pay more attention to a broader range of productive work. It also reveals the interdependencies between employment status and income mediated by the disability compensation schemes.
Labour market outcomes for people with a spinal cord injury
Economics & Human Biology, 2010
In this paper we examine the labour market outcomes (participation, employment and earnings) of people with spinal cord injuries (SCIs), concentrating on the role of public and private forms of assistance ("Lifestyle Support Packages") with activities of dialing living. We designed and administered the Spinal Injuries Survey Instrument to 250 individuals with SCIs in Queensland. Using a matched sampling approach and written, web-and telephone responses, as well as financial incentives, we achieved a response rate of 72 per cent. In anticipation of the substantive econometric issues associated with studies of this kind, we included items to measure otherwiseunobserved sources of heterogeneity, including measures of "attributional style" from field of psychology. Our sampling strategy also involved the collection of data that might serve as suitable instruments for our econometric work. The empirical results reported in this paper include bivariate and univariate probit model results, treatment effect and linear (OLS) regression and Heckman sample selection models. Econometric testing suggests that our sampling approach absorbed much of the heterogeneity in the sample that would typically be unobserved by researchers, but may be observed by others (e.g., employers). Our results uniformly suggest that the most important determinants of post-SCI employment outcomes are years of education and post-injury training and education, which exert a positive influence. We find a weak negative correlation, ceteris paribus, of public support packages on participation and employment outcomes.
Disability Policy in CanadaAn Overview
Journal of Disability Policy Studies, 2003
Over the last century there has been a shift from conceptualizing disability as a challenge to law and order, to viewing disability as a medical and/or economic deficit and then as a sociopolitical issue. In Canada, these changing conceptualizations of disability have been reflected in the development of disability policies, which form part of general Canadian social policies. Each model
Canadian journal of nonprofit and social economy research
This article examines the labour force participation of working-age adults with disabilities, and proposes nonprofits and community agencies as sites for employing disabled Canadians. It documents employment trends over the last 15 years and how they compare to those for people without disabilities. The employment reform agenda of the Canadian disability movement is outlined as two broad approaches: distributional improvements and structural innovations. Inclusive and gainful employment is regarded as an essential part of economic and social citizenship. The challenges of labour force participation for adults with disabilities are then related to recent reports on Canada’s aging population and to Harper government policies on employment for Canadians with disabilities. Finally, it explores applying a disability inclusion lens to the operations of social economy organizations. RÉSUMÉCet article porte sur la participation active des adultes en âge de travailler ayant des incapacités e...
This article presents a critical review of the literature surrounding differing social policy approaches to employment-based programs for disabled adults between developed world jurisdictions. It looks at these policies through a lens of comparative analysis of the Employment Supports initiative in the Ontario Disability Support Program. It argues that employment policy in relation to disabilities rests on a spectrum from direct income-based support to civil rights, and that Ontario rests in the middle of spectrum in both respects, though is moving towards a more civil rights-based model. It suggests that community and employer stigma remains an underrated factor in reproducing relatively low employment rates for person with disabilities, which the current policy of support does not adequately address. More active steps must be taken by government, both at the program-level of ODSP and as part of government-wide initiatives in order to improve employment outcomes.
Employment after Spinal Cord Injury in Norway: A Cross-Sectional Survey
Scandinavian Journal of Disability Research, 2018
Two research questions are addressed: 1) What predicts employment among persons with spinal cord injury (SCI) in Norway? 2) How do the employed compare with the non-employed in their job motivation, labour discrimination, quality of life, everyday coping, health and pain suffering? We use a cross-sectional survey from 2012. With a 51% response rate, 320 Norwegians aged 21-66 years with SCI participated. After injury, 69.5% were employed, and 44.5% remained employed at the time of the interview. There was no gender difference in employment. Among men and women, age at onset of SCI, ability to continue working in the same organisation and education was associated with employment. For men paraplegia and vocational rehabilitation were also significant. Occupational class was non-significant among both men and women. Job motivation and work ability could have affected past employment, and both the employed and non-employed supported the statement that employers discriminate against wheelchair users.
Dynamics of Disability and Work in Canada
Canadian disability policy has come a long way in the past century. However, in contrast with the evidence that disability is not permanent for most, current disability support programs still carry the old static view of permanent disability. By employing a dynamic panel data model of labour force participation, the findings of this paper suggest that labour force exposure is crucial for better return-to-work outcomes for persons with a disability. Without labour force exposure, the effect of a temporary disability is prolonged and participation efforts of the disabled community are slowed down.
PloS one, 2016
We aimed to describe labor market participation (LMP) of persons with spinal cord injury (SCI) in Switzerland, to examine potential determinants of LMP, and to compare LMP between SCI and the general population. We analyzed data from 1458 participants of employable age from the cross-sectional community survey of the Swiss Spinal Cord Injury Cohort Study. Data on LMP of the Swiss general population were obtained from the Swiss Federal Statistical Office. Factors associated with employment status as well as the amount of work performed in terms of full-time equivalent (FTE) were examined with regression techniques. 53.4% of the participants were employed at the time of the study. Adjusted odds of being employed were increased for males (OR = 1.73, 95% CI 1.33-2.25) and participants with paraplegia (OR = 1.78, 95% CI 1.40-2.27). The likelihood of being employed showed a significant concave relationship with age, peaking at age 40. The relation of LMP with education was s-shaped, while...
Work (Reading, Mass.), 2018
Vocational potential in people with spinal cord injury (SCI) are unrealised with rates of employment substantially lower than in the labour force participation of the general population and the pre-injury employment rates. To understand the experience and pathway of people achieving employment outcome after traumatic spinal cord injury by; classifying participants into employment outcome groups of stable, unstable and without employment; identifying pre and post-injury pathways for participants in each group and, exploring the experiences of people of seeking, gaining and maintaining employment. Thirty-one participants were interviewed. Mixed methods approach including interpretive phenomenological analysis and vocational pathway mapping of quantitative data. The most common pathway identified was from study and work pre-injury to stable employment post-injury. Four super-ordinate themes were identified from the interpretive phenomenological analysis; expectations of work, system im...