Return to Work After Injury

OTs provide the following services to promote increased job satisfaction, productivity, stress management and sustainable success in the workplace.

Mental Stress Injury:

Following a traumatic experience, our experienced OTs support individuals to regain function, rebuild their lives at home and in the community and prepare for a successful return to work.
OTs use an evidence-based trauma informed approach to address emotional, cognitive and functional challenges.
Graded In-Vivo Exposure Therapy promotes successful return to work outcome
OTs specialize in treatment for individuals with:
- Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)
- Depression
- Generalized Anxiety Disorder
- Acute Stress Disorder (ASD)
- Single-Incident & Cumulative Trauma

Physical Injury:

Following a physical injury, our experienced OTs support individuals to regain function and independence to successfully return to activities of daily living, community integration and occupational demands.

Who we support

We provide Occupational Therapy (OT) services to support First Responders as well as Injured Workers who have sustained a traumatic workplace incident/injury. The OT role is to empower the worker to apply coping skills and compensatory strategies to enable him/her to return to work successfully.

How we support

The Occupational Therapist will guide the worker through the process of reducing stressors, developing coping strategies, planning meaningful activities and returning the worker to his/her workplace.

Functional Activation: This is OT's specialty dating back to the 1900s when Occupational Therapists studied the significance of therapeutic activities with First World War-injured soldiers

OT Interventions include:

· Activity scheduling and monitoring to explore the relationship between mood and activity engagement and to develop pacing strategies

· Contingency planning to develop coping strategies when plans or events fail to meet expectations

· Developing problem solving skills to resolve unanticipated challenges

· Engagement through reduction of avoidance behaviours

· Identifying goals/values to recognize meaningful activities to focus on in order to build self-confidence

· Acquiring Life Skills in areas such as communication, relaxation, conflict resolution and life planning

Exposure Therapy Intervention: to develop the worker's capacity to function in situations that are reminiscent of a traumatic event that was experienced. It is a two-step process involving Education: (learning how avoidance fuels anxiety) and Planning: (developing a plan to overcome anxious situations)

· Address symptoms such as anxiety, depression, or fear related to the trauma event or location

· Differentiate between safe and dangerous situations applying a cognitive-behavioural framework

· Empower the worker to better manage triggering situations

· Reduce symptoms of trauma through incremental exposure (duration and intensity)

· Reduce avoidance by interrupting the cycle of fear

Return to Work (RTW) Planning: Facilitate the worker's Return to Work schedule by modifying hours and duties to promote his/her successful occupational re-entry

· Assess the worker's Return to Work readiness by determining their symptoms, current functional level and workplace/job demands to ensure a good fit

· Monitor ongoing wellness at the workplace and implement supports to promote the occupational role