BETA-MeH - participation in working life with focus on the needs of people with acquired brain damage

Participation in working life with focus on the needs of people with acquired brain damage (BETA-MeH)

„Rehabilitation rather than retirement“ - This is the principle to be followed in the BETA-MeH model project. The project is about the return to work of people with acquired brain damage. This is realized through accompanying case management and a consistent orientation on the individual concerns of the target group and the respective job requirements.

People with acquired brain injury are characterized by a great heterogeneity in terms of causes, manifestations and degree of damage. Since the central control organ is affected, effects on everyday life and work are correspondingly individual, complex and hence difficult to predict. Therefore, standardized processes and service offerings hardly meet the needs of the persons concerned. The innovative character of BETA-MeH is the demand-oriented optimization of the process chain between the start of clinical-medical rehabilitation and the stabilisation and safeguarding of rehabilitation success, social and occupational participation and ultimately quality of life. To this end, a multi-professional, cross-phase approach to collaboration between all relevant stakeholders, including an early involvement of the employer, is aimed at. In addition to the consistent orientation of the rehabilitative offers towards vocational reintegration, further innovations include an accompanying and coordinating case management to be tested as well as the introduction of remuneration via the development of a case-based lump sum.

The target group of this project are people with acquired brain damage with a job and living in and around the region of Cologne, whose rehabilitation goal is the regular labour market, but whose expected discharge status is assumed to be incapable of work and whose need for professional support is expected.

Within the project, ITA is responsible for the scientific monitoring and evaluation of the project. Central questions are:

• Does the innovative approach improve vocational reintegration to avoid early retirement and public benefits for participation?
• Do participants' social participation, ability to work, quality of life, and
  satisfaction and other subjective factors improve?
• Are breaks in the provision of care at the sector boundaries, underprovision and misprovision of care or the loss of rehabilitation successes already achieved being prevented by the development of an individually accompanying and coordinating case management?
• To what extent can process improvement be made sustainable and successfully transferred to other areas of care?

Due to the complexity of the overall project, ITA chooses an iterative approach („Evolutive Evaluation Approach“). Through evaluation, the object of development is co-developed. A multi-perspective research design and the collection of management-relevant and goal-supporting data provide project partners and the contracting authority with all necessary information for the implementation of the project.

The contracting authority of the project, which is funded within the framework of the BMAS (German Federal Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs) funding initiative "Innovative ways to participate in working life - rehapro", is Deutsche Rentenversicherung Bund (DRV). The project is implemented in cooperation with the project partners Berchtold GmbH for project management and Claros-Salinas/Schupp/Thomas GbR for scientific expertise.