Most people on sick leave can spontaneously return to work without a support program as soon as they are sufficiently recovered. Sometimes additional support is needed.
Professional reintegration
When are you thinking about returning to work?
The longer the period of incapacity for work, the more difficult it is to return to work. So think about your options as soon as possible. Your health insurance company can help you.
What are the possibilities for returning to work?
The majority of people with disabilities can return to work without a support program once they have recovered sufficiently.
Additional support is sometimes needed. For example, because the agreed work cannot be carried out temporarily or permanently. Your health insurance company can help you in this area. We list the possibilities. When you consider the possibilities, the following points are important: Do you currently have an employer or not?
Do you currently have an employer?
In this case, we advise you to choose support options that allow you to return to work with your own employer.
You cannot work all the agreed hours?
A part-time schedule could be the solution, both as an employee and as a freelancer. For this purpose, you need permission from the medical advisor.
Is it impossible for you to carry out all the agreed tasks?
Perhaps a return to work with a tailored set of tasks is a solution for you. Here, the opinion of your employer’s occupational doctor is important. In this case, you make an appointment with the occupational doctor via your company's personnel department.
You can’t see an immediate solution?
In this case, a reintegration project may prove interesting. During a reintegration process, the occupational doctor examines with those concerned the possibilities of a gradual return to the previous function, or to adapted work (temporarily or permanently), or another job. It must be approved by both your employer and you before it can come into effect. To this end, you first need to submit a request for a reintegration journey. Here you make your own appointment with the occupational doctor. Or you ask a third-party to launch the reintegration process for you: your employer, your GP, your health insurance company’s medical advisor.
If returning to part-time work, adapted work or via a reintegration route seems to be impossible for you?
In this case, your health insurance company’s medical advisor can examine alternatives, in consultation with you and your GP. These are possibilities allowing you to return to the job market, possibly via vocational rehabilitation or vocational training.
You don't have an employer at the moment ? Or is a return to your former workplace not an option?
In this case, it is best to choose support opportunities that result in training or internship. Here, it is your health insurance company’s medical advisor who takes care of everything. It collaborates with regional employment offices (VDAB, Forem, Actiris). During training or internship, recognition of your incapacity for work is guaranteed.