Occupational rehabilitation

Workers who have a work accident or contract an occupational disease can access rehabilitation measures and services if they need them. These measures aim to promote their return to work or social rehabilitation. They can be put in place as soon as the CNESST accepts an employment injury claim.

Rehabilitation measures and the personal rehabilitation plan

Prior to healing or stabilization of the employment injury

The CNESST may grant, under certain conditions, rehabilitation measures that are appropriate for the worker's state of health with a view to their professional reintegration or social rehabilitation.

These measures are governed by the Regulation respecting rehabilitation and the Act respecting industrial accidents and occupational diseases.

Measures to promote professional reintegration

• Refresher and vocational training programs
• Evaluation of vocational potential
• Job search support and assistance services
• Adaptation of a workstation
• Reimbursement of expenses incurred to explore the job market or to move near a new place of employment
• A measure to develop the worker's ability to gradually resume the tasks of their job (possibility of financial support for the employer)
• Professional psychosocial services
• Reimbursement of child care expenses
• Functional capacity assessment and development services
• Interdisciplinary specialized rehabilitation services

Measures to promote social rehabilitation

• Professional psychosocial services
• Adaptation of the home
• Adaptation of the primary vehicle
• Adaptation of leisure equipment
• Reimbursement of child care expenses
• Reimbursement of the cost of routine home maintenance work
• Assisted reproduction
• Interdisciplinary specialized rehabilitation services

Personal home assistance may also be granted by the CNESST before the injury has healed or stabilized. This measure is governed by the Act respecting industrial accidents and occupational diseases and the Regulation respecting the standards and tables of personal home assistance.

After healing or stabilization of the injury

When the worker is entitled to rehabilitation, the CNESST prepares and implements a personal rehabilitation plan. The plan may include the measures already mentioned and:

• a gradual return to work (possibility of financial support for the employer)
• payment of a subsidy to the employer
  • For more information about the subsidy, see the publication Subventions aux employeurs – Embauche de travailleurs ayant subi une lésion professionnelle

This is done in collaboration with the worker and the employer, when the employer's participation is required. The plan may include a physical, social and vocational rehabilitation program. Each type of rehabilitation program has very specific objectives depending on the needs identified.

• Vocational rehabilitation program:
  • Facilitate their return to their job or an equivalent job
  • Enable them to access a suitable job with the same employer or elsewhere in the labour market
• Social rehabilitation program:
  • Overcome the personal and social consequences of their employment injury as best they can
  • Adjust to their new situation
    Regain their autonomy in carrying out the daily activities they did before their injury

The personal rehabilitation plan may be modified to take new circumstances into account. 

Participation in the rehabilitation measure or the personal rehabilitation plan

The worker's cooperation is essential to their successful rehabilitation. Their participation makes it possible to reduce, as far as possible, the consequences of their employment injury.

When a worker fails or refuses to participate in a rehabilitation measure or a personal rehabilitation plan without a valid reason, the CNESST may:

• suspend or terminate the measure or the personal rehabilitation plan
• reduce or suspend payment of the income replacement indemnity

The CNESST may also issue an administrative monetary penalty to an employer who refuses to cooperate with the measures carried out in their establishment, unless they demonstrate that the measure imposes undue hardship (in French only) on them.