Promoting resilience in work rehabilitation: Development of a transdiagnostic intervention

Abstract: Purpose: The aim of this study was to develop an operationalized transdiagnostic resilience-based intervention for workers at risk of long-term work disability. Methods: A sequential mixed method design was used. Expert clinicians (n = 10) first answered a questionnaire including closed and open-ended questions on the clarity, applicability, relevance and exhaustiveness of a preliminary resilience intervention developed from evidenced-informed resilience factors to prompt reflection. Second, proposals from the questionnaire were discussed at a consensus group meeting with the same experts, yielding a final and improved intervention. Third, semi-structured interviews with work-disabled workers (n = 6) explored the intervention’s acceptability to them. Thematic analysis of the verbatim was performed. Results: Experts identified 15 statements on clarity, applicability, relevance or exhaustiveness in the questionnaire that did not achieve consensus and generated 41 modification proposals. The consensus group adopted 15 modifications. The adapted intervention was well-accepted by the workers who had completed a work rehabilitation program. They perceived the intervention as positive, relevant, coherent, useful and consistent with their values. Conclusion: A new transdiagnostic resilience intervention in work rehabilitation is available and was on exploratory basis seen acceptable by workers. Next step would be to validate it at a larger scale with more workers and other stakeholders. IMPLICATIONS FOR REHABILITATION Promoting workers resilience in work rehabilitation fosters a holistic approach in clinical practice. Resilience interventions should be integrated into work rehabilitation programs. A new transdiagnostic resilience intervention designed to complement current work rehabilitation programs is available.