Reference and Resources You May Find Useful

Three Self-Assessment Tools

Self-Assessment Tool - Paradigm Shift - find your position on the scale between traditional claim management and the new Work Disability Prevention paradigm.
Paradigm Shift Self-Assessment

Self-Assessment Tool for Employers / Payers - find opportunities to work more effectively with your local medical community.
Opportunity Finding Exercise for Employers / Payers

Self-Assessment Tool for Physicians and Other Medical Providers - find opportunities to grow your practice, and to reduce the negative impact of illness and injury on your patients' ability to earn a living by working more effectively with their employers and benefits payers.
Self-Assessment Exercise for Physicians and Other Medical Providers

Handout regarding dangers of opioid use by people with chronic pain

Informational brochure for patients. The main messages are:
(a) If you have been taking opioids for a while and are not able to live a normal life, that's probably a sign opioids are the wrong treatment for you.
(b) Active treatments are often more effective for chronic pain rather than passive ones (drugs, injections, surgery)– and here is how to find out about them.
(c) There are many negative side-effects and real dangers of opioid medications.

Patient Education on Extended Opioid Use   December 2012

Case in Point Article

Workers' Compensation Awaits an Overhaul  October / November 2007

Social Security Project Report

Final Report of the "Use of Functional / Vocational Expertise" Project commissioned by the US Social Security Administration, conducted by Webility and SSDC.  July 2007

Introduction to ACOEM's New Work Disability Prevention Guideline: "Preventing Needless Work Disability by Helping People Stay Employed" (with executive summary, overview, background material, and list of authors) by Jennifer Christian MD MPH

Introduction to the ACOEM Work Disability Prevention Guideline

Dr J's Column:

The Challenge of Evidence-based Guidelines

Press coverage

Risk & Insurance Article: "A Grassroots Movement"

Recommended Reading

"Assessing and Treating Psychiatric Occupational Disability: New Behavioral Health Functional Assessment Tools Facilitate Return to Work" by the Partnership for Workplace Mental Health (American Psychiatric Association)

"Shaping the Future of Occupational Medicine: Finding Opportunities for Collaboration" Report of the 2007 Cornerstone Summit, American College of Occupational & Environmental Medicine.  (Dr. Jennifer Christian chaired the group that planned this event, and facilitated the meeting.)  For a copy, contact Doris Konicki at ACOEM — 847-818-1800 or dkonicki@acoem.org.