Prevention and inclusion: leadership, psyche and work (in)ability

The 17th SIZ Care Forum attracted around 150 visitors to the campus hall of the University of Applied Sciences Northwestern Switzerland in Brugg/Windisch. Welcomed by Kurt Mettler, Managing Director of SIZ Care AG, and moderator Michael Sokoll, the audience first received a lesson in "complaining endangers your health": communication trainer and book author Dani Nieth explained how too much focus on the negative opens the door to bacteria and viruses.

Prevention and inclusion in practice

The next presentation dealt specifically with prevention and integration. Dr. Jérôme Cosandey of Avenir Suisse presented in his paper "Integration instead of exclusion - good professional integration in case of invalidity is worthwhile" results of a recently conducted study which proves exactly this. He also pointed out that instruments such as the so-called resource-oriented integration profile (REP), as developed by Compasso, a job retention and professional integration network, could be used even more frequently.

Dr. med. Jochen Uebel, specialist in psychiatry and psychotherapy at the Schützen Clinic in Aarau, then took a psychiatric look at the (in)ability to work. He noted that this is a matter of questions of medicine and law and pleaded for a "therapeutic alliance" between all players, i.e. physicians, employers, insurers and patients. This would include, among other things, a more work-oriented attitude on the part of medical professionals and an individualized approach to reintegration into the work process.

Legal pitfalls in the continued payment of wages

Kurt Mettler's presentation then dealt with ambiguities regarding continued payment of wages and daily sickness benefits. He pointed out the different classification of incapacity for work under social insurance law (in particular Art. 6 ATSG) and the Code of Obligations (Art. 324a OR). Social insurance law explicitly links an inability to work to an illness, whereas the Code of Obligations speaks of "inability to work". The latter argumentation can lead to the fact that daily sickness benefits insurers do not consider an inability to work as an illness and therefore do not want to pay daily benefits. For this reason, a clear regulation of the continued payment of wages by the employer at the level of the employment contract/personnel regulations is recommended as a "substitute solution" in order to counter such ambiguities.

More "starch attacks

Evelyne Wenzel's presentation was the final point. She gave the audience food for thought on how their own strengths can be strengthened through their self-image, with a meaningful vision and clear goals, as well as with a positive basic mood. This ultimately serves as a "compass to more strength attacks", according to the speaker - and, following Dani Nieth's presentation, also to a healthier attitude.

More information: SIZ Care AG