Hello! We have reached the last video on the topic of Worker Assessment and Assistance. In this video, to close this topic, we will talk about some important recommendations that must be observed when monitoring workers longitudinally.
A first recommendation is to accompany workers until they are stabilized. It is not enough to generate a diagnosis, and a causal relationship. If a worker is sick and weakened, it is important to ensure the continuity of this monitoring, which can be done by several professionals.
During this monitoring, it is also important that the healthcare professional always assesses the need to, at any moment, remove the worker from the job. And it may occur that at some point of this monitoring, this need is verified. At the same time, is also important to be attentive during this monitoring, to those moments when the worker returns to work.
This moment of reinsertion is usually a very sensitive and difficult moment for this worker. Especially if the absence from work is prolonged. Therefore, it is very important to monitor this process of returning to work, evaluate how it is going, and provide the necessary support for this worker, both in terms of rehabilitation, and working on the difficulties of returning, and the fragility that may occur at that time.
Another important recommendation during this monitoring, is that it needs to be very evident to the worker that he or she is not alone, that they are being supported, and are understood. It is very common for workers to feel alone in these situations. We have already mentioned that these mental health conditions still involve some taboos, and prejudices.
Therefore, the worker often feels very guilty for being sick, because they somehow understand that they were unable to cope, and ends up interpreting that condition as being their fault, as being a personal weakness. And along with that guilt, often comes shame. It is very common for these workers to not feel comfortable confessing and opening up to other people, whether at work, at home, or in the family, and share their feelings and say that they are fragile.
So, shame and guilt often accompany these mental disorder conditions and become an additional problem. Therefore, offering a comprehensive and non-judgmental listening validating this suffering and showing the worker that they are being supported, and that they are not alone, constitutes a tool, a very important therapeutic resource for this worker. Another recommendation refers to something we have already discussed in previous videos, which is what professor Edith Seligmann Silva says about the educational challenge.
All monitoring of a worker who is ill as a result of work must include interventions aimed at building knowledge about the condition they are in. In other words, it is very important to produce with this worker the reflection that the symptoms and the suffering they present might be related to work, or are related to work in case this link has already been established. These guidelines must also be provided to the worker's family.
Just as the workers often do not understand that what they are going through is related to work, the family also lacks this understanding. Therefore, it is very important that the health professional also carries out this guidance work with the family. What happens is, workers experiencing these mental illness conditions, may present changes in behavior, irritability, and isolation.
These are situations that can generate many conflicts in the family. And when the professional takes the time to talk to this family, to explain to this family what's going on with this worker, this can greatly contribute to promoting healthier and more welcoming family relations for this worker. It is also necessary, whenever possible, to have a conversation with the employer.
Very often, when this worker, goes back to work, after being away for some time, might be received in a way which is not so receptive. So, this preparation for the return also involves the need for a conversation with the coworkers, and the employer. This is not a 100% guarantee that this worker will be welcomed in a more relaxed manner, but, in any case, the health team fulfilled its role in promoting this reflection with the organization as well.
And this conversation with the employer, in addition to serving as a preparation to receive this worker after the period of leave, is also important in order to reflect and point out those aspects of the job that need to be changed, those aspects that have been identified as relating to the illness process of that worker. This is also important to alert the employer about the possibility that, if there are no changes in the work process, other illness processes may arise, or that same worker may become ill again, or even other workers in the same sector, who do the same work, may also become ill, which is not interesting for any business. These are the recommendations that need to be observed in order to carry out this longitudinal monitoring of workers.
That’s it for now.
