About this Research Topic
The UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disability (UNCRPD) guides member states to ensure optimal participation of persons with disability (PwD) in all major life areas, including an inclusive labor market and a lasting work participation. Creating working conditions that allow persons to stay healthy and able to work throughout their working age is essential to help address the needs and challenges of our aging society, but also a key goal of vocational integration (VI) of PwD. A sustainable work situation has been defined as "a person-job-workplace match that enables persons to stay healthy and satisfied at work over time, with a work performance that meets the expectations of the person and the employer". VI programs aim to promote such a sustainable employment ensuring that PwD stay at work in the long-term. To achieve this goal, VI practitioners and policy makers need conclusive evidence on the leverage of interventions and strategies to best support sustainable work of PwD and also interdisciplinary approaches, guidelines and tools that consider the needs of the worker. However, despite VI taking place in a multi-disciplinary surrounding, we continue to see a fragmented VI process between different players and systems involved.
The goal of this research topic is to provide an up-to-date evidence that tackles interdisciplinary approaches to promote sustainable work of PwD.
Submissions may include original research articles (quantitative or qualitative designs), literature reviews, conceptual and discussion papers and case studies. We are particularly interested in:
• Interdisciplinary research on sustainable work
• Collaborative research approaches that include VI professionals and PwD as project partners
• Research examining the view of key stakeholder groups in the VI process such as PwD, VI professionals, employers or disability insurance representatives.
• Research bridging the micro (services), meso (systems) and macro (policies) level in VI
• Implementation-oriented research (guideline and tool developments, policy briefs and stakeholder dialogues)
• Mixed-methods research on work disability and sustainable work
• Epidemiological life course research (longitudinal approaches)
• Quasi-experimental studies
Themes relevant to this research topic may include, but are not limited to:
• Paid work (including self-employment) and vocational training or education
• Conceptual definition and approaches to sustainable work
• Approaches for case coordination (VI process optimization, goal setting, and communication)
• Approaches for quality evaluation and management ("How to measure the long-term success of VI services?")
• Long-term effectiveness of VI and job retention services
The goal of this research topic is to provide an up-to-date evidence that tackles interdisciplinary approaches to promote sustainable work of PwD.
Submissions may include original research articles (quantitative or qualitative designs), literature reviews, conceptual and discussion papers and case studies. We are particularly interested in:
• Interdisciplinary research on sustainable work
• Collaborative research approaches that include VI professionals and PwD as project partners
• Research examining the view of key stakeholder groups in the VI process such as PwD, VI professionals, employers or disability insurance representatives.
• Research bridging the micro (services), meso (systems) and macro (policies) level in VI
• Implementation-oriented research (guideline and tool developments, policy briefs and stakeholder dialogues)
• Mixed-methods research on work disability and sustainable work
• Epidemiological life course research (longitudinal approaches)
• Quasi-experimental studies
Themes relevant to this research topic may include, but are not limited to:
• Paid work (including self-employment) and vocational training or education
• Conceptual definition and approaches to sustainable work
• Approaches for case coordination (VI process optimization, goal setting, and communication)
• Approaches for quality evaluation and management ("How to measure the long-term success of VI services?")
• Long-term effectiveness of VI and job retention services
Keywords: Sustainable Work, Labor Market Participation, Vocational Integration, Job Retention, Interdisciplinarity, Implementation, Systems and Services, Multi-Stakeholder, Case Coordination, Quality Management, Disability Evaluation, ICF
Important Note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.
