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Disability management: Helping people leave the sidelines

By Patricia V. Rivera
The Dallas Morning News

KNIGHT RIDDER NEWSPAPERS Sharon McCalla-Gardner, a disability-nurse case manager, says her work for Cigna Group Insurance in Dallas is just as gratifying as traditional nursing.

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DALLAS — Sharon McCalla-Gardner, a longtime hospital medical-surgical nurse, liked the idea of helping people sidelined from work get back on their feet.

But she was uncertain about switching careers to disability management, fearing she would have to abandon the high-touch care she enjoyed about nursing.

But almost a year into her job with Cigna Group Insurance in Dallas, McCalla-Gardner finds her role as a disability-nurse case manager just as rewarding.

"In my job, I have the opportunity to use my experience to teach an entire team how to help people return to productive lives," McCalla-Gardner said. "My greatest joy is seeing someone with a disability get well and return to work as a functioning member of society."

Disability management is growing as employers look for ways to increase productivity. Direct and indirect absences add up to 15 percent of payroll costs, according to a study by Mercer Human Resource Consulting.

"There is a lot of growth in the area, and we'll continue to see an upswing with related careers," said Dr. W. Tom Fogarty, medical director at Concentra, an Addison, Texas-based company that helps employers contain health-care and disability costs.

Opportunities in disability management exist with insurers, health-care providers and employers. The more common roles include case manager, nurse case manager, occupational therapist and physician.

At Cigna, case managers are the single point of contact for the customer and the claimant. They're often registered nurses with training in areas that include psychological and functional aspects of disability, disability-compensation systems, vocational-rehabilitation theory and practice, ethics and law.

Nurse case managers at McCalla-Gardner's level — often advanced-practice nurses — help guide the case managers.
 
One of the more important skills, McCalla-Gardner said, is listening to the patient since she has little face-to-face contact.

"It was a little intimidating initially thinking about how I would respond to a claimant who I cannot see. Then I realized we don't listen as much as we ought. I've learned how to develop that skill more," she said.

Fogarty believes the more successful professionals in these jobs are "empathetic people, good listeners who have the ability to discuss and listen to a patient and ask the right questions."

Studies have shown that integrating claimants into a daily routine helps them recuperate more quickly. McCalla-Gardner said she found that most of them want to return to their normal activities.

"I think it's a great challenge to motivate someone to function like they did before."