This pilot study was intended to examine and to document whether the use of the garden environment and the activities that make up horticulture could be considered a possible method to be used in the vocational rehabilitation of persons sick-listed due to high levels of stress. The study is based on a theoretical (four-step) model using horticulture and the garden environment to provide the foundation of vocational rehabilitation for individuals with prolonged fatigue, chronic fatigue and burnout. The general interpretation is that the results are positive and promising but that further research is needed and should be pursued to examine what causal relationship(s) exist between the garden environment and the reduction of arousal levels; the effectiveness of pursuing this VR process for persons sick listed for stress-related complaints.

This study examined return-to-work in a sample of 468 compensatable injury cases. These included amputees, brain damage, hearing loss, mental disorders, musculoskeletal problems, nervous system, paraplegia, sight loss and miscellaneous conditions. Around 35% returned to work. It was substantially higher for work-related injuries compared to motor vehicle accidents or general insurance claims. Those who underwent surgery or were admitted to hospital had higher return-to-work rates than those never attending hospital. Psychiatric adjustment factors were a major influence on low rates of return-to-work. Other social and demographic factors were considered (gender, age, city vs. rural location, whether a spinal injury was involved, family status, years of schooling, qualifications, job status at time of accident, occupation). Eight out of 17 possible factors were more statistically significantly related than the remainder to whether someone was working but the substantive limitations of even relevant pre- or post-accident indicators are outlined.

Sen (2004) has distinguished between two types of handicap that are commonly associated with disabilities, viz. an ‘earning handicap’ and a ‘conversion handicap’. In this article, these concepts are considered, extended, and developed conceptually within the framework of a Grossman-type model. This model is then used to consider how the welfare implications of disability and the attendant handicaps may be conceived. A utilitarian framework of the kind associated with conventional welfare economics is invoked, but extra-welfarist-type policies are also discussed. The article shows how the concepts of disability and handicap may be given a tractable conceptual economic basis, and how the welfare effects of social policies towards people with disabilities can usefully be analysed within the resulting framework.