National Workers Compensation

Summit 2014 Engagement After Injury

Nikki Brouwers – Managing Director 28 February 2014

Ensuring staff remain engaged in the Return to Work process

Focus on mental health

Early intervention strategies

Engagement After Injury

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International Best practice includes:

• Building supervisor capability

• Early intervention/strong assessments

• Integration of OHS/Injury management

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Canadian Research • Proves that the strongest predictor to RTW is

motivation due to job satisfaction. The role of the supervisor is critical.

• Other predictors to RTW include:

1. Co morbidity

2. Family History

3. Personality

4. Expectations

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Predictors to RTW cont..

• Unimportant factors include:

• Financial incentives

• Business environment

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Diagnosis is not a predictor of RTW (OECD,2007)

• In employment in the UK, 26 % have a health condition or disability

• Of those not seeking work, 49% have a health condition of disability

• Of those unemployed and seeking work, 30% have a health condition or disability

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Early intervention

• Dame Carol Black recommends referrals at 4 weeks to assess barriers to RTW and to develop a RTW

• The Dutch triage at 6 weeks

• The Germans triage at 2 weeks

Dame Black, C, Frost, D, November 2011, Health at work – an independent review of sickness absence, The Stationary Office Limited, United Kingdom.

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German approach: Prevention of claims • Greater than 2 weeks of sick leave =

disengagement

• “ Yellow card “ for workers on sick leave to encourage communication between worker, employer and Doctor

• Results=Decreased workers compensation claims

• Role of supervisor and HR critical

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Germany’s Lead on Disability Management

• Different history to Australia

• Target of 5% or greater employees must have a disability

• Therefore a natural tendency to re-engineer roles/job descriptions

• No longer one job=one person

• Australia needs to look at innovation in job design

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Australian experience at injury management early intervention

• Study by Casey, 2012, showed the average delay to referral is 33 months from DOI.

• Early intervention continues to focus on the medical model.

• Right service at the right time at the right price

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New employer

• Retraining occurs outside the workplace in contrast to Germany where all retraining occurs “on the job”

• Philosophically believe that training outside of work, the worker remains stigmatised and therefore never return to work.

• UK( Black) recommends early intervention for seeking new employer before termination.

Thönnes, F, http://www.bmas.de/SharedDocs/Downloads/DE/PDF-Publikationen/f372-forschungsbericht-eibe.pdf?__blob=publicationFile Dame Black, C, Frost, D, November 2011, Health at work – an independent review of sickness absence, The Stationary Office Limited, United Kingdom.

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Malaysia’s research

• Success factors related to Early intervention and Evidence based practices

• Able to quantify for every $1 spent on early intervention there is a $1.43 savings

Dr M Mohammed, September 2012, International Forum on disability Management, SOCSO’s

RTW Programme, proceedings from conference, London, United Kingdom.

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New Zealand: Better @ work trial • A strong early intervention program

• Evaluation showed statistically significant results

• Fit for selected work certificates rose by 4.5%

• Probability of patient needing weekly compensation decreased by 14%

• Cost of weekly compensation decreased by 21% in cases lasting 90-180 days

Dame Black, C, September 2012, 6th International Forum on Disability Management, 10 September

2012, Disability Management and work. Are we making progress? London,

United Kingdom.

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NZ: lessons learnt

• The role of the Occupational Therapist was crucial for the success of the pilot

• The electronic medical certificate was crucial for success

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Ageing Workforce: The elephant in everyone’s room

• Aged 45 plus

• Evidence clearly supports the following strategies for 50 plus age group:

1. Supportive not directive

2. Utilisation of Worktrial

3. Classroom not appropriate for learning, require self paced learning or on the job training.

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Vulnerable Workers, reference Canada • Education level of staff: the postcode effect • The work-related injury rate for young people

who were out of school and who did not complete high school was three times higher than those who had completed High school

• For young workers who left school after Year 10 the injury rates were almost double compared with those still in school

• Age, type of shift and the number of hours of worked were not factors for injury risk.

Breslin FC, Institute for Work and Health, Young workers out of school, with no diploma, more likely to be injured, Canadian Journal of Public Health, 2008: vol. 99, no. 2, pp. 121-124, http://www.iwh.on.ca/highlights/young-workers-out-of-school-with-no-diploma-more-likely-to-be-injured

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Integration of OHS and injury management

• Consistency of language

• Consistency of measurement

• Alignment of goals from HR

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References • Thönnes, F, http://www.bmas.de/SharedDocs/Downloads/DE/PDF-Publikationen/f372-

forschungsbericht-eibe.pdf?__blob=publicationFile

• Dame Black, C, Frost, D, November 2011, Health at work – an independent review of sickness absence, The Stationary Office Limited, United Kingdom.

• Dr M Mohammed, September 2012, International Forum on disability Management, SOCSO’s RTW Programme, proceedings from conference, London, United Kingdom.

• Dame Black, C, September 2012, 6th International Forum on Disability Management, 10 September 2012, Disability Management and work. Are we making progress? London, United Kingdom.

• Breslin FC, Institute for Work and Health, Young workers out of school, with no diploma, more

likely to be injured, Canadian Journal of Public Health, 2008: vol. 99, no. 2, pp. 121-124, http://www.iwh.on.ca/highlights/young-workers-out-of-school-with-no-diploma-more-likely-to-be-injured

• Institute for Work and Health, Return-to-work practices, http://www.iwh.on.ca/return-to-work-practices

• Australasian Faculty of Occupational and Environmental Medicine - http://www.racp.edu.au/index.cfm?objectid=57063EA7-0A13-1AB6-E0CA75D0CB353BA8

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Thank you

Nikki Brouwers Managing Director The Interact Group