Assessing occupational disability following trauma and impairment

Abstract

Rehabilitation professionals have come to recognize the importance of comprehensive assessment in evaluating the employability of individuals who may have acquired occupational disability secondary to trauma. Disability evaluation and rehabilitation professionals do not always agree on nomenclature and specific methodologies, and as a result, both the meaning and practice of assessing disability following trauma vary. For many years, however, occupational disability assessment and vocational rehabilitation following trauma have been considered comprehensive, intradisciplinary processes of evaluating an individual’s physical, mental, and emotional abilities; limitations from identifiable medical impairment; and residual functional capacities in order to help the injured person experience optimal restoration (Power, 1991). We endorse a biopsychosocial model of disability evaluation adopted by the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health of the World Health Organization (2002). However, we wish to make what we believe are important distinctions among trauma, impairment, and disability, particularly in the assessment of occupational disability.