[Is the governmental vocational rehabilitation program too ambitious?]

The Norwegian government has stressed the importance of supporting vocational training for clients with health problems in order to secure their active participation in the labour force. On average, 35,000-40,000 people were referred from the National Insurance Scheme to the Directorate of Labour to take part in vocational rehabilitation projects in 1995. The majority of the vocationally handicapped are young. Three out of four have a poor educational background, and close to 70% have health problems, mainly in the form of chronic musculoskeletal pain or psychiatric illness, usually depression and anxiety-states. So far, the success of the rehabilitation seems to be rather limited, since approximately 40% of the clients were referred back to the Insurance Scheme. They were considered unfit for training because of impaired health. Another 40% of the cases were considered fully or partly successful. Clients with psychiatric illness seem to be particularly difficult to rehabilitate to vocational activity.