title: [Return-to-work-therapy in mentally ill employees: experiences with case-management activities by private health insurers].
abstract: The development of a "return-to-work-therapy" [RTW-therapy] is described. It was initiated about 3 years ago by case-management teams of private health insurers in Germany to bridge the traditional gap between cure and rehabilitation of mainly depressive employees. The RTW-therapy aims at best-supported recovery of working capacity in patients after partial improvement of their depression. RWT-therapy is a mixture of curative and rehabilitative medicine and incorporates new aspects of case management, i.e. coaching. RWT-therapy tries to overcome (minimise) the depression-induced impairment of working activity mainly by supporting the patients empowerment to start working without a complete recovery of depressive symptoms. The rationale is that a supported recovery to work enhances the positive coping experiences of the patient, which hopefully leads to a further improvement of depressive symptoms. About 24.6 % of the patients managed to start working again after about 16 weeks of RTW-therapy following a continuous sick leave duration of about 63 weeks.
authors.affiliation: Dr. von Ehrenwall'sche Klinik, Ahrweiler.
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Poersch
mesh_terms: D004651:Employment / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D005858:Germany / Q000453:epidemiology; D006801:Humans; D008329:Managed Care Programs / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D001523:Mental Disorders / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000534:rehabilitation*; D028642:Persons with Psychiatric Disorders / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D017149:Private Sector / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D012050:Rehabilitation, Vocational / Q000379:methods* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D016896:Treatment Outcome