Case Study

Ms L moved to Australia over twenty years ago, hoping to find better opportunities for herself and her young daughter. She had worked in office administration in Belgium but her poor English skills limited her options in country Victoria. She worked in a range of unskilled fields before finding employment at a warehouse in 1996.

The work she undertook was physically demanding. She climbed ladders to fetch stock, carrying heavy loads in tubs. In 2002, she experienced an episode of back pain but it quickly went away. Then, in 2003, she bent over to pick up a tub and felt intense pain shoot through her lower back.

Ms L never returned to work. She was thirty-four years old at the time of her injury.

Over the next few years, Ms L underwent physiotherapy, massage and hydrotherapy. She was prescribed a range of medications from various doctors, including analgesics, antidepressants and Endep to help her sleep.
Her doctor referred her to a specialist in Melbourne, who treated her with injections.

Nothing seemed to ease her pain.

There was some talk of retraining but no plan was put in motion.

As time went on, Ms S developed anxiety and a mood disorder. She became panicked when going outside. Her adult daughter quit work to care for her, completing all the household chores. Though Ms L visited a therapist, it did little to improve her mental wellbeing.

Ms L now spends her days completing puzzles and watching TV. She goes for the occasional walk but otherwise rarely leaves her house.

Ms L finds it difficult to focus on anything except her limitations and her disability. Talking about her injury is distressing and her current situation appears to make her deeply unhappy. Her lifestyle has lead to diabetes and hypertension, conditions which compound her misery.

Ms L seems unlikely to ever return to employment. Meanwhile, her case has generated over a million dollars in claims liability and dragged on for over ten years.

Key Learnings

While Ms L’s injury was severe, it need not have resulted in total incapacity.

Without doubt, such a client would be difficult for any case manager to deal with. And difficult clients are often managed less well. There is frequently the sense that little can be achieved and that usual approaches will not pay off. Yet it is the difficult clients who often benefit most from intense and sustained intervention in their cases.

Within the first six months, it was clear from the medical investigations that Ms L was not going to be able to return to manual work.

While retraining can be time consuming, particularly for someone with limited language skills, it can be a cost effective strategy to minimise the chance of long term claims.

Ms L had previous office work experience and some administrative skills. With further English language training, followed by administrative retraining in the year or two after, her chances of returning to work would have increased significantly. Why?

• An employee who cannot return to their previous role needs to be provided with the skills to move into a different line of work
• Providing people with positive options improves their motivation. In particular, re-training Ms L for a position she previously and enjoyed may have given her a more positive outlook.
• When claims managers cease compensation payments, the dispute resolution system will typically look at an individual’s work capacity. If the claimant has been supported to return to the workforce but has not taken up that option, the likelihood of compensation payments being reinstated is decreased.
• Compensation systems are not perfect. However, their stated intent is to support rehabilitation. A lack of meaningful rehabilitation or retraining does not comply with the spirit of the system.

Retraining is an integral part of managing a small percentage of cases. It can be time consuming, expensive, and often unproductive.

Yet in some cases, retraining can result in a return to productive work and decrease the risk of large claims liability. Retraining promotes rehabilitation, improves social capital¹, and strengthens the spirit of the system overall.

Retraining of the type required by Ms L could have taken one to two years. Yet without it, Ms L’s case dragged on for ten years to become a million dollar claim.

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¹Social capital – networks, norms and trust that enable participants to act together more effectively (and therefore more efficiently promoting cost savings)