You may all already be aware of this. I had heard rumors, but today it appears to be true. At the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget's event entitled "Disability Policy for the 21st Century,"

The Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget (CRFB) has just released a follow-up paper that Tom Wickizer, Kim Burton and I wrote on how to implement a Community-Focused Health & Work Service. Our o

We arranged to do the briefing in a Senate office building to maximize the attendance by Congressional staff. Unfortunately, that has meant we won’t be recording the briefing the way would if we were

Colleagues, Next week Tuesday, June 4th, we have a panel for Congressional staff focused on early intervention for newly ill and injured workers. Jennifer Christian and Gary Franklin, experts familiar

HI folks, I wanted to make sure you were all aware of the event we’ll be holding on June 6th here in Washington, DC. (See below.) Among the speakers include Jamie Wilson – who is OMB’s point person on

Hello, RETAINers – Here are two documents that should be very helpful for those who are responsible for planning, training, and supervising the delivery of one-on-one SAW/RTW interventions with worker

Let’s build our awareness of the economic pressures that employers face – especially the well-meaning ones who want to do “the right thing”. See data below from the Bureau of Labor Statistics for curr

Colleagues, We’ve published a brief that has a lot of relevance for the RETAIN effort, especially the second blog described below. It is the third brief in Urban’s New Direction for Disability Policy

A lot of people with whom you need to collaborate in RETAIN may not be familiar with (or buy into) the concept of secondary prevention of work disability – or said another way, the techniques that pre

The SWAP study (Study of Work and Pain) in the UK successfully improved work outcomes by embedding vocational advisors in primary care practices who provided guidance [relatively] early in illness/inj

Colleagues, I am starting a series of briefs that may be of interest to you as it should help to put the RETAIN pilots into a broader context . A New Direction for Disability Policy examines how feder

Hello all – I really really hope / recommend that you read – and especially that you request (require?) the “system level” agency people involved in your RETAIN group to read -- pages 1-9 of the attac

Bottom line: In 2018, substantially less than half of private industry workers had access to short-term disability insurance plans -- and only a third to long-term plans. A quarter of state and local

Dear state RETAIN program people: Unless you create a shared vision of what “good” looks like, you may find it difficult to build a common sense of purpose among the participants, collaborators, and c

Here’s what I hope you will be thinking after reading the list shown belowof common non-medical issues that increase the risk of unnecessary work disability in new health-related employment predicamen

Clicking on the link below will take you to a map. Clicking on any one of the green states will take you to a document that summarizes all eight states’ RETAIN program designs. They differ quite a bit

Hi all, The RETAIN TA contract went to AIR. Jennifer, is this the team you bid with? [MODERATOR NOTE: Sadly, no. Personally, I've never heard of them. Let's look them up! Full name is American Institu

Hi, all – If you click on Grant Recipients on the ODEP SAW/RTW webpage, you’ll find a map that highlights the states participating in Round 1. https://www.dol.gov/odep/topics/SAW-RTW/grant-recipents.h

Rhode Island wishes you all well. William Massey William Massey, M.A., M.A.T., RI-QRC Assistant Administrator, Vocational Recovery Services Chief Judge Robert F. Arrigan Rehabilitation Center Rhode Is

Let's congratulate the 8 states that will be participating in RETAIN Phase I: California, Connecticut, Kansas, Kentucky, Minnesota, Ohio, Vermont and Washington. And also, let’s commiserate with the m