Including significant others in vocational rehabilitation: a scoping review

Significant others (SOs) play an important role in health, recovery processes and in the return to (or stay at) work. However, the extent to which they are included in rehabilitation programs, especially those aimed at enabling participation in working life, is unclear. This scoping review's objective is to create an overview of research on vocational rehabilitation interventions including SOs and to assess in what way SOs are addressed in these.

This scoping review was guided by the framework of Arksey and O'Malley. A two-stage search was conducted in Medline (PubMed), Web of Science, PsycINFO, and Social Sciences Citation Index, including studies which addressed vocational rehabilitation approaches involving SOs. Data was extracted using a charting table based on the TIDieR-Rehab checklist, capturing study characteristics, intervention details, characteristics of SOs and the conceptual basis for including SOs.

Eight studies published between 1985 and 2024 were included. They adopted different quantitative, qualitative and mixed-methods approaches. One group of interventions directly targeted families of rehabilitants while a second group focused on rehabilitation professionals. A third group investigated the conceptual or contextual background. The interventions varied regarding what kind of rehabilitants they were tailored for. Most did not conceptualize their rationale for including SOs.

This scoping review shows that the inclusion of SOs in vocational rehabilitation remains rare. Existing interventions are heterogeneous and rarely concept-driven. Future research should focus on the development and evaluation of structured, theory-informed approaches that integrate SOs in a targeted and needs-based manner, while also considering potential burdens and conflicting roles.