Developing an effective partnership with employers and other stakeholders is now considered a key intervention for supporting the return-to-work (RTW) of workers following a long-term absence. However, how this applies to workers recovering from a mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) remains unknown. The aim of this project was to describe strategies used by practitioners to develop this partnership during post-mTBI work rehabilitation and to explore how these strategies were perceived by workers.

Two viewpoints were documented: that of the practitioners (n=30) in a rehabilitation centre in Quebec (Canada), through four focus groups; and that of the workers (n=10), through semi-structured individual interviews. The data were transcribed verbatim and analyzed according to thematic analysis principles.

The results indicate that seven different strategies are commonly used during work rehabilitation to develop a partnership with the various stakeholders (employer, insurer, attending physician and family). All are designed to bring these partners’ messages and interventions in line with those of the rehabilitation team. The mechanisms underlying these strategies are mainly discursive (e.g. validation, explanation, or persuasion). While the workers corroborate the strategies’ relevance, they consider some inadequate for attaining the goal, notably as regards the employer.

Though it appears desirable to use a range of strategies to ensure consistency among the different stakeholders’ messages and interventions during post-mTBI work rehabilitation, it alone does not guarantee success, particularly with the employer. It may also be necessary to use non-discursive mechanisms to achieve greater consistency.