Individuals in and around four B.C. communities now have access to a program supporting workers injured off the job to get back to their jobs.

The reducing poverty through early intervention and occupational rehabilitation initiative is a voluntary intervention program which will support participants in return-to-work planning, intervention and ongoing support through follow-ups. 

Sheila Malcolmson, Nanaimo MLA and minister of social development and poverty reduction, said participants will receive support from a certified disability management professional in collaboration with health-care professionals.

"We're going to be curating for each individual person what it is they need and their employer needs in order for them to be able to return to the job that they had," Malcolmson said during a press conference in Nanaimo on Thursday, July 25. "This is accessing employment-related strengths, accessing their health-care needs, their occupational therapy needs and developing personal return-to-work plans."

Aside from Nanaimo, the three-year pilot program is also being introduced in Vancouver, Kelowna and Prince George. The minister said those communities were chosen to spread the program to different areas of the province as well as test it in different-sized cities.

"A really important piece in selecting was these were all communities that have external service providers that [National Institute of Disability Management and Research] knew they could work with and so effective treatments for the people who had been injured Ï㽶ÊÓƵֱ²¥“ physiotherapy, occupational therapy, ergonomic assessments Ï㽶ÊÓƵֱ²¥“ would all be available."

Wolfgang Zimmermann, executive director of NIDMAR, which spearheaded the program, said it is modelled off of a system used in Belgium, where disability management is a regulated and legislated profession.

"It's now become a model for other European countries," Zimmerman said. "It's really all about trying to support individuals up front, getting back to work without heading down the path of long-term unemployment."

Nanaimo Mayor Leonard Krog praised the pilot during this week's press conference. 

"I was never one of those people who believed people didn't want to work," he said. "Most of us want to feel useful, we want to be employed, we want to look after ourselves but there are certain circumstances where that becomes a challenge for a whole series of reasons. This program is there for those people."

The three-year pilot program is funded by the federal and provincial governments. An application form can be accessed online through .