| When looked at from a vocational
perspective, many different types of conditions can result in identical
work-related impairments (e.g., both a knee injury and a lung ailment can
result in a restriction to sedentary work).
Impairments from non-injury related causes can result in work
disability of varying degrees, with minimum to maximum impact.
What is relevant is the effect of the impairment, whatever the
cause, on a person’s capacity to work and earn money. Even if a person disabled by a tort is
more attached to the labor market, this does not mean that the person
seeking employment will be successful, long-term or short-term.
An example is persons who have sustained traumatic brain injury.
Persons with this impairment are not always realistic regarding
their limitations and tend to have poorer decision-making skills than
persons without brain injury. Despite
their difficulties, and with the help of their pre-injury work experience,
they may present well to prospective employers, enabling them to be hired.
Once on the jobs, however, their impairments can prevent them from
performing as well as necessary, resulting in job failure or dismissal.
Another important point is that the CPS excludes institutionalized persons.
This excluded population likely holds a large fraction of the
persons with chronic disability that are more likely to have no residual
earning capacity. The exclusion of this group reduces the possibility of distortion in the CPS. |
