There are very distinct sounds that tell each of us just what is going on around us.

Craig’s Table is no different: Craig’s Table has very distinct sounds and very different sounds to any other component of the workers compensation concept.

Right now I am sitting in a tiny space within Craig’s Table, I know that just a short distance away from me a barbecue lunch is being prepared and in a few moments someone will call me to lunch.There are the sounds of laughter and happiness as people are helping to prepare the food and set the eating area for all of us to enjoy the meal together.

The sound of a week completed of changes made and achievements made is mixed into the laughter. There is that sound of contentment and that sound of friendship that comes from knowing that each other is in place to support encourage and most of all grow as a person and as a group.

As I sit here surrounded by the sounds of Craig’s Table my mind goes back to the years of endless meetings within the workers compensation industry. The years of meetings where the injured worker community was spoken about in ways that did not connect the very reason for workers compensation to the workers compensation concept. Without the injured worker community there quite plainly not be any reason for the workers compensation industry to be in place.

There are also very distinct sounds within the workers compensation concept for the injured worker community. The sounds of fear and worry and angst, the sounds of crying and yelling and blame. There is the worst sound in the world, the sounds of isolation and judgment. 

There also the sounds of questions, the sounds of disconnection and the sounds of control followed by the sounds of forced compliance and resistance.

As I sit here I am trying to marry the two together and find it is not possible.

The old ways of workers compensation have gone (at least for those who are here at Craig’s Table), the enforced “smallness” is no longer a part of the lives for the participants of Craig’s Table. 

Just 24 hours back I sat in a room with eminently qualified people, they were asking the same questions and voicing the same concerns and uttering the same issues that I have heard for 20plus years. I sat there knowing that whilst Craig’s Table cannot as yet answer every aspect of what was being discussed Craig’s Table can and is the answer that they have been looking for- the missing first step, the way forward, the light at the end of the tunnel, or whatever else can be used to describe outcomes for the injured worker community. 

I was able to speak with a few of the professionals in the room, I gave my business card to many others. 

I was also left asking myself the same question that I have asked myself for years “has anyone ever actually asked the injured worker community if they want to be there?”; for myself, I know that the answer is no, I never wanted to be stuck in workers compensation with total strangers making choices and decisions for me. I know just how shocked I was when reading my own workers compensation file, I found that a number of professional strangers had also read my file, they had access to my medical records and they had placed a judgment on me without ever meeting me or even speaking with me on the phone. 

The injured worker community deserves far more than it has had till now.

Right now the barbecue lunch that is being prepared is a clear indication of just how far this group of people can go when they have the door opened for them, they will laugh and learn with each other, they will break bread and they will build life long friendships and they will grow past even their wildest dreams. 

My role in all of this is to be the gate opener, to put the morrow in front of everyone so that they can see the opportunities that are real and the opportunities that are built just for them to grasp and make their own. 

The sounds that fill Craig’s Table need to be heard over the width and breadth of the workers compensation concept. The sounds of good natured banter and riotous laughter, there are hugs from the heart and there is a truth that doesn’t need to be explained it is just accepted and understood. 

I know that what is here at Craig’s Table is not for everyone, I know that there are people who are either unwilling or unable to change their perception and I know that these people come from the injured worker community as much as they come from the provider component of the workers compensation system. 

For now I am just basking in the sounds of joy here at Craig’s Table; a barbecue lunch is a great way to end what has been a very long week.  

Yours in service
Rosemary

www.craigstable.net.au

rosemary@craigstable.net.au

SKYPE Rosemary2412 

25th May 2018