Disability management program

A Disability Management Program, or DMP, is used by employers to assist employees who are unable to work due to injury or illness. The DMP consists of several components, however not all DMPs have all possible components. Smaller programs may only include the basic components while larger programs generally have more components. The purpose of the DMP is to benefit the employer by returning experienced, trained employees to work quickly. The central distinction required to plan and operated a DMP is between the terms "impairment" and "disability". Although physicians diagnose and treat impairments, employers decide if an employee is able to work within the exertional limits of their disability.
While there are other entities that offer disability management programs, the single individual who has done most to initiate and document the methods and materials of disability management in the workplace is Dr. Jasen M. Walker [1], President of CEC Associates, Inc., [2]in Valley Forge, PA.
Starting in 1983, Walker developed a number of methods that now stand as the basic structure of effective disability management for injured employees. These methods (and materials) have been made available to vocational counseling professionals through articles in rehabilitation-related journals, as well as regularly scheduled seminars. These concepts stand as the only specific, documented materials available for the professions. They include:

- the specific components of a Disability Management program,
- a Lexicon of the essential disability management terms,
- a “How to Implement a Disability Management Program” piece,
- the methods and materials for a Transition-to-Work process,
- the methods and materials for job analysis to meet ADA standards for “essential functions,”
- a definition of “injured worker helplessness” and specific methods to work with employees identified as such,
- the identification of disability proneness in employees,
- the development of assessment methods and materials for injured worker evaluations,
- the adaptation/application of such traditional counseling strategies as Locus of Control, Attributional Style, Agentics, the Maslow Hierarchy, Acquired Disability, etc. to workplace disability management,
- the guidelines for “Disability Duration,”
- the significance of and methods of dealing with co-malingering,
- the adapting of Positive Psychology and “resilience” concepts (especially the taxonomy of values and strengths) to workplace disability management, and
- the disseminating of Managerial Mediation methods to workplace HR professionals.
In addition to articles for professional journals, Walker has written more than 50 disability management articles for rehabilitation professional Continuing Education credits. All of the articles, including content-specific articles that meet “ethics” requirements, are credentialed by the certifying commissions for CRC, CCM, and CDMS professionals.
Walker and CEC Associates, Inc., have published the longest running newsletter for occupational rehabilitation counselors. The newsletter, The New Worker[3] focuses on issues relevant to disability management, and is available both online and in hard copy. It has been published continuously since 1983.