Work And Vocational advicE Study - Effectiveness of Adding a Brief Vocational Support Intervention to Usual Primary Care

Summary

Maintaining the population's fitness for work is a priority for the UK Government. People with poor health often struggle at work and take sick leave. Work brings financial, social and health benefits. Few employees receive support to manage their health at work, known as vocational advice, so when their health affects work they visit their general practitioner (GP). The investigators have recently shown the benefits of providing vocational advice for adults consulting in primary care with musculoskeletal pain.

The WAVE study research question is: in patients consulting in general practice who receive a fit note for time off work, does a brief vocational advice intervention lead to fewer days lost from work than usual primary care, and is it cost-effective?

WAVE includes a feasibility phase to adapt a vocational advice intervention for a broader group of patients and test it in a small sample of patients; followed by a pragmatic, multi-centre, two-arm, parallel-group randomised (1:1) trial with internal pilot phase, mixed methods process evaluation and health economic analysis.

Patients will be randomised to either (i) vocational advice intervention plus usual care, or (ii) usual care alone. The vocational advice intervention is designed as a stepped care model based on the principles of case management and delivered by trained Vocational Support Workers (VSWs).

The investigators will also interview patients, General Practitioners (GPs), VSWs and employers to understand their views about the intervention and return to work.

Participants in the trial will be followed-up over 6 months with fortnightly text messages and postal questionnaires at 6 weeks and 6 months.

Conditions

• Musculoskeletal Pain
• Mental Health Issue
• Mental Health Disorder
• Other Physical Health Condition
• Absence

Interventions

BEHAVIORAL

Vocational Support

Participants randomised to receive vocational advice will all be offered: Step 1, contact by phone to undertake an assessment with a trained Vocational Support Worker (VSW) to identify obstacles to Return to Work (RTW) and support RTW planning. Step 2, face-to-face (in person or by videoconference) in-depth discussion of obstacles to RTW and further support for RTW planning. Step 3, contact by the VSW (with participant consent) with the participants' workplace. The frequency of contact will be individualised to the needs of participants and the offer of support continued until sustained RTW (defined as return to any work for at least 4 weeks) or until 6 months of absence, after which participants will be signposted to other services.

Sponsors & Collaborators

• University of Southampton

  collaborator OTHER

• Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust

  collaborator OTHER

• University of Birmingham

  collaborator OTHER

• Aston University

  collaborator OTHER

• Keele University

  lead OTHER

Principal Investigators

• Gwenllian Wynne-Jones, PhD · Keele University

Study Design

Allocation

RANDOMIZED

Purpose

SUPPORTIVE_CARE

Masking

DOUBLE

Model

PARALLEL

Eligibility

Min Age

18 Years

Sex

ALL

Healthy Volunteers

No

Timeline & Regulatory

Start

2020-12-23

Primary Completion

2023-04-20

Completion

2025-01-31

Countries

• United Kingdom

Study Locations