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Preventing Social Exclusion through Illness or Disability: Models of Good Practice

McAnaney and Wynne have presented a coherent description and a theoretical account of the processes wherby people who acquire a disability or chronic illness can become socially excluded. This mainly happens through the process of becomming absent from work and through a failure to be reintegrated into the workplace, for whatever reason, eventually becomming long-term absent and dependent on long-term disability benefits. Describing examples of good practice at any level requires a framework for good practice against which real practice can be assessed. This paper proposes two such frameworks, one each for the systems and workplace levels, which set out a number of dimensions which can be used to characterise practice at these levels. The European Foundation study characterised the national situations in seven EU Member States (Finland, Germany, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, Sweden, and the United Kingdom) and sought to identify examples of good practice at company level in each of these countries. In this paper some of the more innovative approaches to return to work in these countries are described and conclusions regarding good practice are drawn.