Falling between two stools; how a weak co-operation between the social security and the unemployment agencies obstructs rehabilitation of unemployed sick-listed persons |
| |
Authors: | Eriksson Ulla Britt Engström Lars-Gunnar Starrin Bengt Janson Staffan |
| |
Institution: |
a Department of Health and Environmental Sciences,
b Department of Social Studies, Karlstad University, Karlstad, Sweden |
| |
Abstract: | Purpose.?To explore significant factors behind the weak co-operation between local social insurance and unemployment agencies impairing the rehabilitation of unemployed sick-listed persons.
Method.?Individual, semi-structured face-to-face interviews with main actors directly involved in the sick-listing and rehabilitation process were conducted in the year 2000. In all 39 persons were interviewed: 25 professionals (physicians, public employment and social insurance officers) and 14 clients. Data were analysed according to Grounded theory method.
Results.?The majority of unemployed sick-listed persons were declared too sick to work and were erased from the unemployment registers. This measure weakened the incentives for co-operation between the two main rehabilitation actors. The implication was that the unemployed sick-listed persons lost the opportunity of the co-ordinated rehabilitation they were entitled to. Three significant factors behind this process were identified by the main actors: indistinct regulation of co-operation, shifting political goals over time and conflicting goals between agencies; the last factor mainly a consequence of the other two.
Conclusions.?The findings suggest that labour market changes and manifest political goals influence the rehabilitation efforts giving low priority to difficult-to-place individuals such as unemployed sick-listed persons. In fact, a labour market problem turns into a medical problem. The hypothesis needs further testing in quantitative studies. |
| |
Keywords: | Sickness absence unemployment vocational rehabilitation co-operation grounded theory |
本文献已被 InformaWorld PubMed 等数据库收录! |