Return-to-work guide now available online
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* Alison Sinclair

Disability, whether work related or not, is seldom discussed during the training of Canada's physicians. For that matter, neither are the compensation issues surrounding disability, even though most doctors will have to deal with them at some time. Now a new guide that helps physicians manage patients with workplace injuries and deal with disability and return-to-work issues is available to aid them in overcoming that past neglect.

Injury/Illness and Return to Work/Function: a Practical Guide for Physicians emphasizes the importance of the physician's role in enabling a patient's safe return to work. The guide also includes information on income support for people unable to work because of illness or injury. The guide is a result of the Physician Education Project in Workplace Health, an 1994 initiative of the Ontario Medical Association and the Institute for Work and Health.

The design allows it to be modified for use elsewhere and allows for future expansion; among the possibilities under consideration are a return-to-work guide for people with psychiatric illness and a physicians' guide on insurance issues. MDs can download the guide at [www.wsib.on.ca](http://www.wsib.on.ca). —