Daily Life Coping: Helping stress-afflicted people manage everyday activities

BACKGROUND: Symptoms of stress are widespread in the working population and associated with long-term sickness absence and poor work functioning. Occupational therapy (OT)-based interventions are effective in improving return-to-work (RTW)-rates in stress-afflicted long-term sickness benefit beneficiaries (SBBs). No Danish standard on OT-RTW for stress-afflicted SSBs exists.

AIMS: To describe and evaluate the feasibility of a seven-week OT-RTW intervention for stress-afflicted SBBs.

MATERIALS AND METHODS: Daily Life Coping (DLC) utilizes peer-learning and salutogenetic perspectives to address occupational imbalances experienced by long-term SBBs. Stress-afflicted SBBs ( n  = 54) in the municipality of Hilleroed were enrolled. Self-efficacy and well-being were measured before and after intervention using the general self-efficacy (GSE) scale and WHO-5 Well-Being Index (WHO-5). RTW-rates were measured at one-year follow-up. Participant feedback was collected using standardized evaluation forms.

RESULTS: Following the intervention, WHO-5 improved by 13.7 ± 16.5 points and GSE improved by 4.3 ± 4.8 points. Participant feedback was positive. At one-year follow-up, employment status data were available for 51 SSBs of these 58.8% achieved employment. High post-test GSE and WHO-5 scores were associated with employment at follow-up.

CONCLUSION: DLC led to significant improvements in self-efficacy and well-being. Preliminary results indicate benefits on RTW-rates.

SIGNIFICANCE: This study provides evidence of the feasibility of DLC in a municipal setting.