Emerging Issues in Disability Management

Lucette Wesley, Director, Life & Disability Claims BC Life, Pacific Blue Cross

WHAT is: Disability Management

•  Partnership between employer, employee, employee’s representative, insurers, service providers

•  Goal to: •  Prevent illness and promote healthy workplaces •  Develop solutions to return workers to the workplace. •  Contain costs by:

•  early detection •  health education (literacy) •  lifestyle approaches

Agenda

•  Emerging Disability Issues •  Paradigm shift in Disability Management •  Explore solutions

Emerging Disability Issues •  Economy

• Changing Canadian Workplaces • Disability Drivers • Healthcare Climate • Regulatory & Legal • Options

Economy

•  Increasing workplace stress •  Absenteeism costs increasing

FT average days lost in 2011: 9.3

•  Presenteeism costs • Deferred retirement

Category Days Category Days Men 6.4 Women 9.4 <  age  20 5.1 Age  55-­‐64 11.5 Public  sector 12.9 Private  sector 8.2

Changing Canadian Workplaces

Aging Workforce

Changing Canadian Workplaces Aging Workforce

TD Economics Feb. 23, 2012 (www.td.com/document/PDF/economics/special/ff0212_older_workers.pdf)

Changing Canadian Workplaces Aging Workforce

• Retain knowledge & experience, but

• Health & Safety •  Longer recovery •  Job redesign sometimes required • Different types of accommodations

•  http://www.ccohs.ca/newsletters/hsreport/issues/2010/08/ezine.html#ontopic

Changing Canadian Workplaces Aging Workforce Canadian Centre for Occupational Health & Safety •  Adapt the work environment

•  lighting, heat, and ergonomics. •  Adjust workstations & match job tasks to physical capabilities and limitations •  Offer flexible work arrangements

•  job sharing, flexible hours, part time jobs, work from home, reduced work schedules

•  Design and provide appropriate training programs •  training may have to be more "practical“ & it may take longer to train •  may also need more assistance or practice

•  Stimulate employees' interests and creativity •  Broaden the range of work experience, encouraging mentoring younger workers

•  Provide workplace wellness programs with access to services such as Employee Assistance, fitness, and nutrition programs.

•  http://www.ccohs.ca/newsletters/hsreport/issues/2010/08/ezine.html#ontopic

Changing Canadian Workplaces

Other Influences

Changing Canadian Workplaces Other Influences

• Needs and wants differ by generation • Non Standard work arrangements •  Technology & social media •  Sedentary workplaces •  Public social programs • Higher incidences of chronic diseases

Disability Drivers

Morneau Shepell –Human Resources Leadership Study(http://www.morneaushepell.com/_private/getpdffile.asp?docId=1550)

LTD Disability Claims

2011 Benchmarking Study- Munich Re & Claims Analytics

Disability Drivers Mental Health

•  1 in 5 • Risk higher in early working years • Odds of recurrence high •  Forecasted to grow •  Presenteeism impact

Disability Drivers Cancer

•  186,400 cases estimated in 2012 • Continues to rise •  5 year survival rate increasing •  Long lasting complications •  LTD claims increasing •  Integrated cancer care providers

Healthcare Climate •  Lack of family physician availability •  Long referral wait times • Role of family physician • Reliance on drugs as quick fix, but

•  Specialized providers emerging

Regulatory • Workers Compensation changes

•  Psychological Health and Safety Standards

Legal

• Duty to accommodate?

•  Source: BC Human Rights Code, R.S.B.C. 1996 c. 210

•  Case law •  Must accommodate a complainant up to the point

of undue hardship

Legal Duty to Accommodate

• Who has duty to accommodate?

•  Employer •  Union •  Complainant •  Other employees

Paradigm Shift in Disability Management • Work is essential component of well being • Disability’s discretionary component •  Impairment does not equal disability •  Focus on functional abilities

•  Job Design with demands including cognitive •  Early intervention re-defined

•  Early recognition, support and intervention •  Stay at work (SAW) • Collaboration

Health & Safety

Canadian Centre for Occupational Health & Safety •  Comprehensive Workplace Health and Safety Program has

four main components: •  Occupational health and safety (the physical work

environment) •  Psychosocial work environment (organizational culture

and the organization of work) •  Workplace health promotion (wellness) •  Organizational community involvement

•  http://www.ccohs.ca/healthyminds/promoting/components.html

Explore Solutions

•  Know your demographics •  Awareness of cost drivers •  Invest in Prevention, Wellness, SAW • Harmonized approach to disability management

Explore Solutions Harmonized Approach

• Commit to initiatives • Develop attendance support programs • Optimize benefit plan design •  Implement health and wellness programs • Develop accommodation policies •  Invest in tools and resources • Corporate culture shift

Resources Mental Health Resources •  National Bottom Line Conference2013 Feb. 27-28 (www.cmha.bc.ca/bl) •  Celebrating a New Era in Workplace Mental Health: Putting National Standards into Practice •  www.mentalhealthcommission.ca/English/Pages/Workplace.aspx •  www.gwlcentreformentalhealth.com

Legal Sources •  Papers re Duty to Accommodate and Privacy on Alexander Holburn Beaudin + Lang LLP website

www.ahbl.ca/resources/publications/Legal Reference documents

Strategies for Disability Management in the Workplace •  www.longwoods.com/content/21943

Providers of Disability Management in the Workplace •  www.homewoodhumansolutions.com •  www.morneaushepell.com/index.aspx?m=hpsolutions •  www.orgsoln.com •  www.ohiinc.ca/index_eng.html Occupational Therapists •  www.caot.ca/default.asp?pageid=1114

Other •  www.cirpd.org/Pages/Default.aspx •  www.nidmar.ca/index.asp •  www.ccohs.ca/keytopics/health_wplaces.html