Return To Work: our partners - AG Employee Benefits
Return To Work assistance programme run by our specialised partners

Published on 11/03/2021

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Return To Work assistance programme: meet our partners

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​With Income Care income protection Insurance, you not only provide your staff members with a financial safety net, you also give them access to an assistance and guidance programme that will get them back to work safely and successfully. With AG, you can choose from four external partners, each with their own scientifically proven approach. Find out more about these four partners here. ​ 

In the past few years, we have seen a rise in stress-related conditions such as burnout syndrome, and the coronavirus pandemic has only intensified this harsh reality. If you opt for Income Care income protection coverage, you not only provide a financial support to your staff members, you also give them access to an assistance and guidance programme​ run by our specialised partners. 


From now on, you have even more options to choose from since we've added CITES Stress and Work Clinic (CITES Clinique du Stress et du Travail) to our list of care providers.  

A choice of four partners for your assistance and guidance programmes 

In order to match you with the partner that best suits your needs, we work in cooperation with four external care providers: CITES Stress and Work Clinic in Liège (CITES Clinique du Stress et du Travail), Workplace Options, Oh My People and Ternat Medical Centre (Medisch Centrum Ternat).  

Be sure to watch the introductory videos for each of these four partners below:

1. Our most recent partner: CITES Stress and Work Clinic, based in Liège​

With its multidisciplinary team, CITES provides your staff members with a holistic approach that covers several disciplines and combines the support of different healthcare professionals (doctors, sociologists, psychologists and physiotherapist-sophrologists). The end result is a programme tailored to meet the specific needs of your staff. There are several phases to the programme:

  • Active listening, self-soothing techniques, emotional regulation: at this stage, the participant's primary need is rest. CITES offers psychological counselling and/or body awareness and mindfulness sessions. 
  • Analysis and reactivation: next, during counselling sessions, the patient analyses his/her situation and identifies the resources needed to bring about positive change. This is the opportunity for the participant to take part in individual or group stress management modules.  
  • Return to work: the experts walk the participant through the different phases in the return-to-work process, the different prevention resources to contact at the company, etc. 
  • Consolidation: once the participant has returned to work, s/he can still attend sessions for a certain period of time to review all the knowledge gained during the programme. 

CITES Stress and Work Clinic in Liège presents its ​ approach in greater detail.

​2. Workplace Options 

halto has had a name change and is now called Workplace Options
With a proven 15-year track record on the Belgian market, Workplace Options has a network of professionals all over the country. The assistance and guidance programmes delivered by Workplace Options​ are also structured in several phases:

  • Need analysis: the process begins with an exploratory interview where the participant explains his/her situation and issues to a team of professionals. Based on this interview, the psychologists work with the staff member to design a made-to-measure assistance and guidance plan. 

  • Every assistance and guidance programme is always custom-designed to meet the patient's specific needs. 
This programme is based on three action areas:  
Psychological counselling:  The objective is to gain deeper insight into the cause(s) of stress, and to identify the resources needed to improve the situation.  
- Career coaching: With the input of the staff member and the employer, Workplace Options (Réhalto) will review and determine the best way to get the participant fit for active duty again. How about modified job duties? Is part-time work a viable option?  
Physical fitness training: Through physical activity, the staff member will build up the necessary energy levels to help ease his/her transition back to work.  

Workplace Options tells you more about ​its assistance and guidance programme (French - Dutch)

​3. Oh My People

Your staff members will have access to quick, accessible, high quality care. If ​Oh My People​ gets an "alert call", the experts will contact the participant within three hours and set up an appointment with him/her within the next three days. Oh My People applies a unique neurobiological approach that leads to greater resilience and flexibility.​ 

In addition, techniques and experts from several fields are consolidated in one single place. The participant gets the benefit of individually-tailored support in each action area without having to travel to different locations. And finally, the techniques used in the programme are scientifically proven. 

All assistance and guidance programmes delivered by Oh My People are divided into several phases:

  • The experts start by addressing the participant's physical symptoms.  
  • Next, the patient will be given the opportunity to try body awareness and physical activity
  • After that, the coaches will work on reorientation (career analysis, etc.) and relapse prevention, together with the staff member's input.
  • In the final phase, the experts and the participant will jointly come up with a plan to get the participant back to work safely and successfully.

Elke Van Hoof, founder of Oh My People, explains her approach in greater detail (French ​Dutch​). 

4. Ternat Medical Centre 

Several factors can be the source of stress. In order to address all aspects of the problem​Ternat Medical Centre takes a phased approach:  

  • Recovery: the patient gets practice with relaxation and breathing techniques  
  • Sport: through physical exercise, the participant learns how to release tension and stress in the body 
  • Psychotherapy: this gives the participant  the necessary tools to identify and defuse potential sources of irritation and/or events that could trigger a stress response  
  • Reintegration: in this phase, the participant gains insight into his/her situation and understands the underlying reasons for his/her conditions. S/he will then be in good shape to reach out to his/her employer, with a positive and proactive mindset. This is the opportunity to bring up the problems s/he has experienced and see what the employer can do to help. If communication with the employer is not an option, Ternat Medical Centre will help the participant choose another area of activity, find another job, etc.

Luc Wachtelaer (founder of Ternat Medical Centre) presents his assistance and guidance programme (French - Dutch)

The assistance and guidance programmes delivered by these partners are an integral part of our Income Care offer.​