The purpose of a Work-Hardening Program is to help an injured employee return to work as quickly as possible.  Work-Hardening incorporates physical conditioning, psychological services, work simulation, and education to build strength & endurance and to improve function, while helping to prevent re-injury.

Work Hardening is a multidisciplinary rehabilitation program that spans the gap between therapy and returning to work. At the end of therapy, if a Functional Capacity Evaluation reveals that the patient is not capable of returning to the workplace yet, often Work Hardening or Work Conditioning will be prescribed.

The Work Hardening team must include a Physical Therapist, an Occupational Therapist and a Psychologist. It is a very structured program that addresses work performance, flexibility, strength, and endurance. The patient will be involved in education, exercises, and counseling. The patient begins at 2 or 4 hours per day and progresses to 8 hours per day, in a combination education, exercise, work simulation program. They are expected to clock in as they would on a job, and their physical capacity, as well as work performance, is supervised.

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