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Disability Management and Organizational Change: The DMAR Project In June 2008, the Disability Management Excellence (DMEx) initiative was launched as a joint endeavour between the British Columbia Ministry of Employment and Income Assistance and the National Institute of Disability Management and Research (NIDMAR). The initiative was defined through its objectives: "Restoring lives – Reducing costs", and involved the application of a NIDMAR developed and globally adopted return to work / disability management program assessment protocol, administered through the International Disability Management Standards Council (IDMSC). Supported through employer and worker organizations in British Columbia, the launch of the DMEx project, through the Honourable Claude Richmond, then Minister of Employment and Income Assistance, saw the participation of a broad cross-section of British Columbia employers representing the public and private sectors; small, medium and large enterprises; and industrial as well as white collar workplaces. A broadly based business-labour steering committee under the leadership of Ralph McGinn, fr. CEO of WorkSafeBC, decided early on to scientifically document the entire process, starting with the initial program assessment through to RTW/DM re-design and documented socio-economic impact evaluation within a major organization where findings would yield the greatest value and be of vested interest to all British Columbians. The organization was the Vancouver Coastal Health Authority (VCH), serving 25 percent of BC's population and one of the largest health authorities administering BC's healthcare system. VCH had participated in the initial RTW/DM program assessment launch, both in response to rapidly escalating long-term disability insurance premiums and a significant number of nurses on LTD, while concurrently dealing with substantial unfilled nursing vacancies. Led by a joint VCH based overall project steering team, the scientific evaluation / documentation process of this effort was superintended by world-renowned Dublin-based disability management researcher, Dr. Donal McAnaney, who devised a Disability Management Action Research process, which through the support of other members of the research team, documented all relevant steps in this initiative. The socio-economic outcomes from this highly collaborative process have been most significant and the full report chronicling this major effort is now available. To access a copy of this report, DM and Organizational Change: The DMAR Project, please click on the following link: More Information |
