[Occupationally Orientated Medical Rehabilitation (BOR) for disabilities caused by orthopedic diseases]

Low back pain and arthrosis are influencing the quality of life of people concerned and are leading to high expenses for the health and social system. A merely medical rehabilitation is often insufficient in case the person concerned is unable to fulfil the requirement at work. But vocational rehabilitation is often connected with long processing and waiting times. To counteract these, cooperative approaches have been developed between rehabilitation clinics and vocational retraining centres (Berufsförderungswerke, BFW) over the last few years. The Bad Eilsen rehabilitation centre of the LVA Hannover has worked with the Bad Pyrmont BFW since 1998. According to this project, "Occupationally Orientated Medical Rehabilitation" (Berufsorientierte medizinische Rehabilitation, BOR), the participants are extensively informed and tested in the retraining centre, they can also perform occupation-specific tasks. The aim of the study was to compare processing and waiting times with and without BOR. The results available so far show that a majority of the participants of the BOR measures could be occupationally reintegrated. In many cases work promotion measures were introduced earlier. BOR measures not only lead to a considerable acceleration of procedures, they also improve the occupational reintegration of the insured to a high degree.