Improving Vocational Outcomes in Arthritis

The long-term objectives of this research project are to enhance program participation and improve the vocational outcomes of people with work disability due to arthritis and related musculoskeletal disorders (ARMD) who are actively seeking vocational rehabilitation services.

Some researchers think that people with work disability due to ARMD seeking vocational rehabilitation (VR) services who are exposed to an "agency access intervention" are more likely to gain entrance to the VR system and be determined eligible for services than are similar people not exposed to the intervention. Further, they think that people with work disability due to ARMD who are determined to be eligible for VR services, and who are exposed to an "agency enhancement intervention" while receiving services, are more likely to become and remain employed upon completion of the VR program than are similar people not exposed to the intervention.

The research design is a randomized, controlled, field experiment comparing the vocational outcomes of a group receiving a two-part intervention to those not receiving the intervention. The design allows us to evaluate separately each component of the intervention. The intervention consists of training sessions to help prospective VR clients with ARMD successfully enter and complete the VR program, and training sessions for a randomly selected group of VR professionals to help them serve VR clients with ARMD more effectively.

If this intervention strategy can significantly increase (1) VR utilization rates; (2) post-service employment rates; and (3) length of post-service employment in a previously underserved group with historically poor VR outcomes, it could have a significant role in reducing the immense impact, nationally, of work disability due to ARMD.