Success for sick leave scheme

Marian Bryfdir was able to get back to work quicker than expected

People in north-east England are being helped back to work after long-term sick leave.

The government-funded Routeback initiative aims to find out what helps people return to work.

It is targeted at those who have been off work for between six and 26 weeks and is running on Tyneside and Teesside because of the poor long-term sickness record.

Professor Chris Drinkwater, from Northumbria University, is Routeback manager on Tyneside.

He said: "We have very high rates of long-term sickness absence and all the evidence is the longer people are off work the less likely they are to get back.

"This is about trying to help people to get back as early as possible.

"We are looking at different interventions for different groups of people."

Personal adviser

Among the ways of helping people is offering adaptations and aids to help them, like taxis to and from work.

If it is a mental health issue, people work with a personal adviser to find out what the issues are and are offered counselling with one type aimed at helping people think positively.

One of those who has been helped is voice coach and opera singer Marian Bryfdir, from Gateshead.

At the beginning of the year she developed a small viral growth close to her vocal chords which meant she had to have an operation.

She said: "I was put in touch with Routeback about my problems getting back to work because obviously the voice takes quite a long time to get over this kind of operation.

"Though my singing work is not as difficult because I have a vocal technique which I am trained to use, but a lot of my work in teaching involves speaking which is much harder on the voice.

"I had a chat with the Routeback people and they suggested they might be able to help me out with mobile microphones and equipment so that I could tape some of the exercises I would normally do using my own voice and get back to work much quicker than I anticipated."