ABSTRACT
To adequately respond to work-related illness or injury, a soundly based occupational rehabilitation system is required. This chapter examines the building blocks of effective occupational rehabilitation, particularly as occupational rehabilitation services involve the attitudes and behaviors of those employees living with chronic illness and permanent impairment. The development of effective and efficient workers compensation rehabilitation schemes has proved difficult to achieve, both in Australia and in similar overseas nations such as the United States. The provision of a safe working environment is an expected initial building block for all occupational health, safety, and rehabilitation programs. In the overwhelming majority of workplaces, high levels of safe practice can be achieved. The exact mechanisms of the general effects are not fully understood although major theoretical models of the mental health benefits of work have been advanced by prominent occupational psychologists such as Marie Jahoda and P. Warr.
