I’ve always felt that work was part of my identity.

What I did as Dr. Svec was very different from what I felt and thought as Hank. It wasn’t until retirement that I began to understand what it might be like to be injured and away from work, trying to get back at a younger age. Looking back, I think I should’ve understood this sooner.

Dr. Svec, the psychologist, focused on treatment, rehabilitation, and return-to-work plans. Hank, the retired psychologist, now realizes that a step may have been missing. I suspect that step is still missing today. That step, the ‘return gap,’ doesn’t fit neatly into a psychological or a medical return-to-work model.

Read: Coordination, collaboration at core of HOOPP’s winning absence management program

In retirement, I’ve often wondered what it would feel like to be age 45, away from........

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