Centro Polifunzionale Don Calabria
Medialabor - Job Integration Service
DISABILITY MANAGEMENT
A project developed by Don Calabria Centre and a Public Company in Verona
The project started in 2002 in a experimental way and it's going on for the third year of
experimentation.
DISABILITY MANAGEMENT
Disability Management is an active process of minimizing the impact of an injury, disability or
disease on the worker’s capacity to successfully perform his or her job.
OBJECTIVES
The main goals of the project are here below described:
 To support workers in maintaing their job, when they have got a disability or when their ability
in performing a job is compromised by invalidating factors or by other events which reduce
physical, psychological, social well-being.
 To support employers in better managing with disability or with disadvantaged situations of
their workers.
THE COMPANY PROFILE:
 The Company was founded in 1909 by Verona’s Town Council as a public real estate
management company, with major objective in building and managing houses for less well-off
citizens.
 At first, the Company was organized like a building firm, with its own workers (bricklayers,
plumbers, electricians, etc.).
 In the 70’s the Company started to award contracts to other companies, and now it manages
only design and project management for new buildings and for maintenance works.
 The Company also manages all business relations with tenants.
In 1999 Verona’s Town Council assigned the Company cemetery and funerary management.
Actually, the Company manages over 4.300 flats and 23 cemeteries, all sited in Verona.
The staff consist of 158 employees.
Workers’ average age is 39 years.
THE STARTING POINT
The acquisition of new cemetery and funerary services required insertion “ex-novo” of all
gravediggers, and no one of them was skilled about the work to do.
Besides that, the work entails specific hazards connected with manual handling of weights,
biological and chemical agents handling, working conditions.
Furthermore, just few specific technical solutions were available to support workers during
operations.
As a result, the trend of accident events grew dramatically during 2000 with major incapacity to
work attributable to back pain.
During 1999 the Company started co-operating with Istituto Don Calabria, to integrate people with
disabilities through “ad hoc placement” as provided by the law.
During this phase of cooperation the need of a deeper intervention came out because of the state of
accident events
The increase of conviction about DM model benefits, led the Company to start the new experience
on January 2002.
ACTIONS OF DISABILITY MANAGEMENT
•
Presentation of the Disability Management Model to
–High-level managers
–Unions
•Constitution of a work team (composed by representatives of Istituto Don Calabria and of the
Company) which regularly meets during the whole project (once per month)
•Analysis of the company situation to identify if and which company’s department were critical for
absenteeism-disease and to know existing procedures to manage with these critical events. Specific
questionnaires were used.
•Analysis of the employees situation to know
satisfaction level as concerns their job; company’s
services which can contribute to promote wellbeing in workplace; interest level as regards
training/informative interventions proposed by the work team. Specific questionnaires were
submitted to workers.
•Implementation of informative/training interventions to employees
•Case management.
INFORMATIVE / TRAINING INTERVENTIONS
They regarded the following topics and requested the cooperation of the local seat of National
Institute for Insurance against Industrial Injuries, of the local Service for Health and Safety at Work
and of the local Services dealing with addictive substances.
•
•
•
•
•
Pregnancy-maternity
Disability
Rights and duties of workers in case of accident at work (carried out by representatives of the
local seat of the National Accident Insurance against Industrial Injuries)
Addiction and effects of psychoactive substances (carried out by representatives of the
Addiction Service of the local Health Department)
Safety at work and prevention (in cooperation with the local Service for Health and Safety at
Work
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•
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Training sessions for low-level managers on addictions and consequent behaviour
Training session for low-level managers on group leading capabilities, communication skills,
how to manage with conflicts
Delivery of a worker’s handbook based on the informative interventions effected during the
first year of experimentation of the model
CASE MANAGEMENT
The service was delivered with the purpose of reaching the following objectives:
•Facilitate problem definition
•Facilitate the identification of internal resources of the individual to solve the problem
•Verify and promote the possibility of adaptation of the work environment, connected to the defined
problem
and according to the main principles:
•Principle of self-determination and active participation of the worker in problem solving
•Principle of professional secrecy
•Principle of network activation to solve the problem
The Case Manager supported 17 employees (legal advice; health conditions analysis; non
therapeutic counselling; evaluation of matching worker/job; advice to the worker for the recognition
of disability; mediation between worker and company in case of disabling events; advice for
ergonomic adaptations, network activation with local services, etc.)
MAIN OUTCOMES OF DM MODEL IN THE COMPANY’S POINT OF VIEW
•Pursuit of actions finalized to the employees’ wellbeing
•Focus on sensitivity and social responsibility, mainly as regards the funerary-cemetery service
•Improvement of the company’s “microclimate”
•Improvement of the employees’ “trust” towards the Company
•Activation of better relationship with INAIL (National Accident Company) - SERT (Addiction
Service) – SPISAL (National Body for Safety at Workplace)
•Approaching Company and employees through non traditional training-informative themes
•Company supportability of costs
•Company awareness in the training involvement and in the quality growth of the employees
•Approaching of the Company to the big social, health and safety operators, increasing the
cooperation
•Improvement and measure of the Company “microclimate”
CONTRIBUTIONS OF THE DM EXPERIMENTATION TO THE SAFETY SYSTEM IN
THE COMPANY’S POINT OF VIEW
•TRAINING-INFORMATIVE CONTRIBUTION:
- Awareness to safety, health and life style
- information on local services available
- rights and duties
•TECHNICAL CONTRIBUTION
- specific competence of the team in disability and social disadvantage
•SYSTEMIC CONTRIBUTION
- activation of participating processes
- feedback to workers
- increase of number and typology of individuals active in “safety system”
The DM model is starting the third year of experimentation. The contents will include a stricter
cooperation with the company’s doctor to minimize disabling events and to increase preventions
activities.
The Disability Management model has got 2 important recognitions:
 The Health and Safety Manager of the Company – who is a member of the work team – was
invited to present the Disability Management project in the “4th European Conference on
Promotion of Wellbeing at Work”, which took place in Dublin on the 14th and 15th June 2004.
 The company has win one of three prizes in the competition “Safe company – Health and Safety
at work 2004”. This competition was publicized by Regione Veneto – Councilorship for Health
Policy – addressed to public and private companies, located in Veneto Region, to award relevant
projects in the fields of training and information on health and safety at work, management of
health and safety at work, health promotion and social responsibility of the companies. The
companies that participate in the competition were 54.
Verona, 24th October 2005