“The thing about being a rehab provider,” says Donna Valiant, Occupational Physiotherapist and Ergonomist, “is that it’s a balancing act - in terms of meeting peoples’ expectations.”

The job of a RTW Coordinator is generally no different. Return to work can often be complicated by the conflicting ideas and goals of various parties involved in the process.

Donna suggests that the key to resolving these conflicts is to remember why everybody is there in the first place.

“The primary goal for everyone is returning someone back to work safely and quickly; if we’ve all got that in common then that’s a good starting point. It’s about ensuring that goal is clearly on the table to begin with and that all strategies lead to that end.”

Relationships

Donna suggests that in order to reaffirm this common goal, we need to focus on the quality of the relationships between the return to work players.

“I think it’s all about relationship building with employers,” says Donna. “It’s about gaining their confidence that we can actually make a difference to their bottom line. The sooner they engage us, usually the smoother the return to work process goes. Early intervention is the key.”

Gaining trust and raising awareness of the issues helps get all return to work players on the same side, helping that people understand their capabilities as well as their obligations.

“Everybody has obligations,” Donna says. “The employee has an obligation to undertake the most suitable rehabilitation strategies, the employer has an obligation to offer suitable duties and we as a rehab provider facilitate that process. Obligations ensure that employers comply, while the injured worker understands what they can do to contribute to their recovery.”

Case conferences

Donna uses case conferences as a tool to help her align the common goal of return to work, while fostering good relationships.

“The use of case conferences is an important, under-utilised strategy,” says Donna. “When I’ve been involved in an experience like that, it’s always moved things forward - always.”

Donna explains the process:

“The idea is to invite all parties to sit down and identify what the barriers are and what needs to be addressed in a bit more of a consultative way. If you get everybody in the same place at the same time, it’s a very quick and easy way of getting an outcome.”

“For example, it could be that the doctor is slightly resistant in the return to work process. They may be supportive of the employee and not really understand that there are duties available, or that the employer actually isn’t the bad guy. So sometimes actually getting everybody in the same room at the same time is a really powerful strategy.”

The benefit of this consultative process is that it avoids a common RTW killer: strained relationships.

“It’s just about communicating directly with the employee. Often employees can feel ambushed, if for example, the RTW coordinator goes to the GP and says, ‘of course we’ve got duties, and these are all the duties they could be doing’, yet the employee doesn’t necessarily agree with those.

Donna warns that this whole process, “needs to be well facilitated”, with a clear agenda. She also puts the power into the hands of the RTW coordinator, saying that they can instigate the case conferences themselves – it’s not something that must or can only be done by the rehab provider or claims manager.

Ongoing meetings.

Donna suggests continuing the dialogue on a regular basis.

 “I think that the initial meetings and the ongoing meetings that we have are just refocusing on the goal. So, being clear in our return to work plans about whose obligation it is to do what. Each party both have obligations: one, to participate; and the other to provide a safe place for that person to return to work.”

Getting employers on board with workplace wellbeing

Employers are increasingly recognising the preventative health benefits of workplace wellbeing programs. If you’ve been dreaming up how to implement them in your workplace, you should find Donna’s advice encouraging.

 “It’s not too much of a stretch,” begins Donna. “In fact, employers often seek us out for that. They know what their requirements are under the law and OHS legislation as well, but often the biggest issue is the cost associated with it.”

Convincing employers of the benefits of wellbeing programs, Donna says, needs to involve range of cost and implementation options.

“It needs to be in bite-sized pieces, so that employers can meet their obligations and also work within their budgetary constraints.

“We certainly try and break it up into smaller components so that they can choose which ones of those they want to undertake. Some undertake fairly large programs and others just small components of them.”

Case study

“A great program we ran recently for one of our corporate employers was a 10 week challenge,” explains Donna, “where we did baseline fitness measures on all of the volunteers that wanted to undertake the program.

“Over the course of the program we looked at things like diet, nutrition, exercise, fitness, baseline glucose levels. Then we implemented a range of different strategies on a week-by-week basis, the participants were all monitored on a weekly basis for all of those key areas, and then fully evaluated at the end of the program.

“It was really inspirational, the changes that people made in that time: the food they ate, the exercise they performed.”

Donna says that often people are waiting for an opportunity to make these changes, which is why workplace programs such as these, “act like a catalyst.”

“So those sorts of things are quite large, but you can go right down to some basic stuff like office ergonomics – good preventative strategies for managing sprains and strains in the office environment.

Donna Valiant is the director of Catalyst Injury Management.