A Journey to the Future of Injury Management from an

International Perspective

18 March 2013: EBIM Conference

Nikki BrouwersInteract Injury Management

International Best practice includes:

• Building supervisor capability

• Early intervention/strong assessments

• Integration of OHS/Injury management

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 morbidity2. Family History3. Personality4. Expectations

Predictors to RTW cont..

• Unimportant factors include:• Financial incentives• Business environment

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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.

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.

Integration of OHS and injury management

• Consistency of language

• Consistency of measurement

• Alignment of goals from HR

Thankyou

• Nikki Brouwers

• 02 9460 2444

• nikki@interactgroup.com.au