Encouraging Encounters Experiences of People on Sick Leave in Their Meetings with Professionals

................................................................................................................. 5 LIST OF PAPERS ........................................................................................................ 7 TERMINOLOGY......................................................................................................... 8 INTRODUCTION....................................................................................................... 9 Studies on sickness absence .............................................................................. 10 The sickness benefit system.............................................................................. 11 Health..................................................................................................................... 12 Health promotion ................................................................................................ 13 The importance of work ..................................................................................... 14 Return to work...................................................................................................... 15 The perspective of the person on sick leave................................................... 16 Encounters with professionals.......................................................................... 17 Background of the project and the author ...................................................... 18 AIMS OF THE THESIS............................................................................................ 19 METHODS ................................................................................................................. 20 Qualitative and quantitative methods............................................................. 20 How the studies are related ............................................................................... 21 The interview studies..................................................................................... 23 The questionnaire studies.............................................................................. 26 The theoretical study...................................................................................... 28 Ethical considerations......................................................................................... 29 RESULTS .................................................................................................................... 30 DISCUSSION ............................................................................................................ 35 Methodological considerations......................................................................... 35 Discussion of the results .................................................................................... 39 Experiences of positive encounters.............................................................. 40 Encounters and demographic variables...................................................... 41 Encounters and groups of professionals ..................................................... 42 Encounters and RTW ..................................................................................... 44 A model of theoretical relationships between emotions, empowerment and RTW................................................................................................................ 44 Implications for practice..................................................................................... 47 Needs for future research................................................................................... 47 General conclusions ............................................................................................ 48 Svensk sammanfattning..................................................................................... 49 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS...................................................................................... 52 REFERENCES ............................................................................................................ 54 Due to copyright restrictions the articles has been removed.