OHS 477 Midterm: OHS MIDTERM 1
26 Apr 2020
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OHS MIDTERM 1
Lecture 1
What is Disability Management?
• In an organizational context, it is a program to manage the costs associated with the costs that
disability claims create
• A disability claim is created when a worker does not show up for work, nut continues to get
paid- the reason may be work related or not
• So the company continues to pay a worker who is not there, for some length of time
• In addition to salary and benefits, there may be a wide variety of medical costs and possibly
vocational training
• In modern plans, absence can be caused by workplace accidents as well as incidents that occur
off the job. These absences can be expensive and they can be managed through a disability
management program (DMP)
o DMP is needed to manage these costs
• Like all company programs, it should support the overall mission and vision of the company. And
like all company programs, it must support the strategic goals of the company, and contribute
towards attaining the business objectives
• It is not just a cost or a legal obligation
• Since it is a program, it has its own goals and can be measured and evaluated under the general
umbrella of the company goals and strategic plan
• Because it is a “management” program, there is a defined structure, best practices, measurable
objectives ad makes a defined contribution to the success of the firm
• Depending on the size of the company, it may have its own staff or it may ne included in the
overall benefits or human resources portfolio
• Currently, it is recognized as an essential component of risk management (where OH&S can
often be found)
A Brief history of Disability Management
• For most of history (extended families, agricultural workplaces) people with disabilities could
still make some contribution to the family and to the community (we used to not have a
disability management program). And in the agricultural society, everything was done at home.
Therefore if somebody was hurt and could not work- they were still able to do other useful
things for the support of the community.
• With the creation of the industrial factory, that changed due to standardization of tools, tasks
and equipment- and led to a fundamental change in how society valued a person with a
disability
• In the past, if you got hurt on the job, you couldn’t do the job anymore. You wouldn’t be able to
go back to work, and therefore wont get paid. Women were not able to work, therefore high
child labour rates started (small children were able to fit into small places of machines).
o Law was created for no longer allowing women and small children to go inside machines
to grease them)
• There was a change both in how those with disabilities spent their days (work) and how they
were cared for (home vs institutional care)- until 1960’s, very little effort to integrate those with
disabilities into the larger world. → beginning of change occurs in the 60’s
• James Meredith entered Mississippi State University, and (less known) Ed Roberts entered UC
Berkeley, also in 1962
• Seen by many as the beginning of the disability rights movement, which led to the Americans
with disability act (ADA) in 1990
• WHO (World Health Organization) published reports in 1976 and 1981
• During this period there was a great deal of rethinking issues like, what is a disability, why is
financial support linked to ability to work, what is the goal of rehabilitation, is compensation for
injury or loss of future earnings
• James Meredith
o 1960s- protests and kills with civil rights movement
o 1962- fed government of the US, passed forced integration, no discrimination on
race…etc → leading to riots
o 1962: the university of Mississippi said we will never have a black student at this
university
â–Ş James Meredith was the first black student enrolled in the university of
Mississippi, an army marched in with James to enroll him and they stayed with
him for 3 years. This got attention of the world.
▪ Ed Roberts didn’t get the attention of the world, trying to enter UC Berlekey: he
had a disability, but he convinced himself that everyone’s staring at me because
I’m a Rockstar, not because I’m crippled.
• There was a long fight between Roberts and UC Berkeley, but he
graduated and went on for masters as well
• Ed Roberts was the James Meredith for Americans with disability. He
fought his way in UCB and supported the rights of people with disability.
• All of this thinking led to several different models for managing disabilities:
o The medical model: this model sees disability as a problem caused by a diseases, injury
or other source, which must be treated like all other medical problems- the goal is a
“cure”, and so much of the effort is operating through conventional healthcare agencies
to “fix” the problem
o The social model: this model sees disability as primarily a socially created problem,
where the goal is the full integration of the individual into society. Much of the effort is
devoted to removing the barriers in the world that create barriers for disabled persons.
o The charity model: this models sees disabled persons as victims of unfortunate
circumstances or events, and as such are deserving of pity. This is one of the most
common models that able-bodied people adopt when they deal with disability.
o The economic model: this model sees disabled persons purely in terms of their reduced
ability to work, and the increased costs that may be imposed on general society as a
result of that disability.
• There are more models out there. None accurately describe the full range of disability, because
each disabled person is unique. The medical model has problems dealing with permanent
disabilities, since they can never be “cured”.
• The social model has problems dealing with issues such as schizophrenia, where full integration
back into society may be part of the cause of the disability
• The charity model completely disregards the abilities that a disabled person may have, as well as
their desires to function in the larger world.
• The economic model reduces the value of the person to his or her ability to earn
Integrated
• An integrated disability management program tries to take the viewpoints of all of the parties
into consideration when working towards the best outcomes. Such questions led to the
rehabilitation act 1973 (USA). This made the goal of treatment not vocational readiness, but
competency in independent living.
• In Canada, this was mirrored in the Canada human rights code (1980)
From the world health organization…
• Disabilities is an umbrella term, covering impairments, activity limitations, and participation
restrictions. An impairment is a problem in body function or structure; an activity limitation is a
difficulty encountered by an individual in executing a task or action; while a participation
restriction is a problem experienced by an individual in involvement in life situations.
o Impairment: this is the actual disability, which can be permanent or temporary, and
suggests an inability compared to a person without that disability. This leads to a
“medical” view or disabilities
o Activity limitation: this is the difficulty or inability of a disabled person to execute a task
or action and is the primary concern that DM programs are attempting to resolve in the
workplace
o Participation restrictions: these are difficulties faced by disabled persons due to
accessibility issues, for example. There was been high progress within participation
restrictions in recent years.
• Disability is thus not just a health problem. It is a complex phenomenon, reflecting the
interaction between features of a person’s body and features of the society in which he or she
lives. Overcoming the difficulties faced by people with disabilities requires interventions to
remove environmental and social barriers.
• People with disabilities have the same health needs as non-disabled people – for immunization,
cancer screening etc. They also may experience a narrower margin of health, both because of
poverty and social exclusion, and also because they may be vulnerable to secondary conditions,
such as pressure sores or urinary tract infections. Evidence suggests that people with disabilities
face barriers in accessing the health and rehabilitation services they need in many settings.
Issues
• Terminology- how do we refer to a person with a disability? Does such a person have a
disability, or an impairment, handicap, or are they crippled? This is an area that has bee the
focus of intense thinking recently, and the current focus in the USA is on “people-first language”
o Ex: a young man with cerebral palsy, or a lady using a wheel chair → where the person
comes first→ followed by a descriptor of the disability
Document Summary
In addition to salary and benefits, there may be a wide variety of medical costs and possibly vocational training. In modern plans, absence can be caused by workplace accidents as well as incidents that occur off the job. These absences can be expensive and they can be managed through a disability management program (dmp: dmp is needed to manage these costs. Like all company programs, it should support the overall mission and vision of the company. And like all company programs, it must support the strategic goals of the company, and contribute towards attaining the business objectives. A brief history of disability management: for most of history (extended families, agricultural workplaces) people with disabilities could still make some contribution to the family and to the community (we used to not have a disability management program). And in the agricultural society, everything was done at home.
