Social Rehabilitation Through a Community-Based Rehabilitation Lens: Empowerment, Participation and Inclusion of the Elderly Long-Term Unemployed in the Re-employment Process

Abstract

This research examined social rehabilitation in the context of the components of community-based rehabilitation (CBR) through the experiences of elderly long-term unemployed in the re-employment process in Finland. Two questions were posed: ‘What kinds of experiences do the elderly long-term unemployed have of social rehabilitation?’ and ‘What can the key components of CBR—empowerment, participation and inclusion—offer for the re-employment process?’ We analysed social rehabilitation through the experiences of 15 elderly long-term unemployed individuals who had been employed in the intermediate labour market, and results showed they had experienced social rehabilitation in diametrically opposed ways, both positive and negative. The positive experiences included hopefulness, partnership, and re-employment, while a negative outlook, being left alone in the workplace community, and exclusion from the labour market were found amongst the negative experiences. Based on the results, we built a practical model of social rehabilitation, which we called the EPI model.