The construction sector is associated with a particularly high rate of work-related lumbar back pain. An interdisciplinary rehabilitation program, namely the early collaboration program, has been developed to integrate at the same time: early screening, the regular workplace as a contextualized means of training, and the early and continuous collaboration of a rehabilitation counsellor during the management of injured workers. Due to the complexity of this program, its evaluation required that its implementation and effects be studied. The authors compared the planned intervention with the one actually implemented.
Their work revealed that occupational rehabilitation intervention with people with lumbar back pain is complex, woven into the social environment, and that, to be effective, action must be at several levels as well as coordinated. Several research scenarios have emerged from this study, including the need to investigate the dimensions of changes in the representations of workers and employers during the workplace intervention, develop an assessment of the capacities that takes into account the individual's interaction with his actual work environment, document the nature of the strategic alliances between the different partners, and explore the establishment of collaboration favourable to a return to work that takes into account the partners' needs and structures.

Lombalgie et réintégration au travail  -  Le cas des travailleurs de la construction  -  Volume 20, n^o 4, p. 24-25.