Cross-Disciplinary Workplace Intervention Strategy for Chronic Musculoskeletal Disorders

Sickness absenteeism caused by MSDs is a persistent and expensive health challenge in all industrial countries including Switzerland. Despite much progress as to the cause and prevention of MSDs, they continue to be some of the most prevalent and challenging health problems with respect to the work-place and to socio-economic burden. To improve the situation, several recent reviews recommended interventions based on the bio-psycho-social model. Work-hardening and industrial rehabilitation programs focused more on the in balance between physical and mental demands of work on one side and capacities of the individual on the other side. Therefore we propose to merge the two models into one. The result is an interdisciplinary intervention strategy witch includes work hardening, medical trainings, a cognitive behavioural approach and work place intervention.