Frustration and Determination
(The Fight of Two Wolves Within You)
I am sitting here tonight with a multitude of thoughts running rampant through my mind. For the first time since the end of 2015 I am meant to be on holiday; only my thoughts and frustrations don’t seem to understand that holiday means to stop and not think about work or what needs to be done or even who needs to be doing what.
The reason for this turmoil if that is what it is is that a Report into the Australian workers compensation system was released yesterday. Injured worker experiences of insurance claim processes and return to work: a national, cross-sectional study
The upside of the Report is that it has been published, the down side is that it doesn’t tell me or any other member of the injured worker community anything that we did not already know. Workers compensation is simply not supportive or person-centric for a significant number of accepted claimants.
What is frustrating for me is that I have lost count of how many conferences, seminars, workshops planning session, coffee chats I have attended or been a part of over the last two decades where several presenters have outlined the need for claims management improvement or how the impost is determined in dollar terms and not in people terms.
I have also lost count of the number of times that I have received calls outside of working hours (whatever they are meant to be) from industry providers who are calling for help for a particular injured worker or even just because they themselves need to talk about issues that are beyond their framework of control. I well remember one disgustingly cold and wet winter night driving around 70ks just to make sure that a particular industry person was able to get the help and support that was needed.
When I came into worker compensation as an injured worker I held no plans to become the person I am now, I planned to regain my health and level of wellness and return to my family life as it was mapped out to be. Instead I somehow morphed into an advocate not just for the injured worker community but for the employers and when needed for various people within the workers compensation industry.
The entire time I fought against the dogma and churn and burn process of the system that puts dollars ahead of people. And yes; when opportunity opens, I have stood and reminded the providers to the system that without the injured worker community they would not have a reason to get out of bed in the mornings.
Today I had a conversation with the person who told me that if I didn’t like what workers compensation is then I had to step up and change it (actually his words were not that polite) today we discussed the various styles of claims management and the various different outcomes that can be seen when people are placed as the foremost important person in their own workers compensation claim.
It is not dollars that matter, it is not the type of injury or even which industry the person worked in, it is not the level of education or even the ability to engage in the process. What matters is the person first second and third and if anything else is left behind, that also belongs to the injured worker.
I am often asked what is so vastly different at Craig’s Table that people who have been recipients of workers compensation for many years are able to regain their ability to return to the open workplace. My answer is simple, at Craig’s Table the focus for everyone is about the return to three important factors 1: return to self, 2: return to community, 3: return to work/study.
Craig’s Table is not working at its full potential and I know it. I know what is on the drawing board because I put it there. I know that it is time we stopped talking about the need to change and the need to improve. I know it is time to start asking better questions and focus on different outcomes, it is time to start asking “what if” instead of the endless loop of “what now”
Tonight; the frustration level is so high simply because I have been saying “what if” and doing “what if” for such a long time, the work at Craig’s Table continues to expand outwards, the universities are placing 3rd and 4th year Psychology and Occupational Therapist students at Craig’s Table. I am frustrated because the Report says the workers compensation system needs to change which is just another echo into the void of nothingness because the will to change to improve to generate the better workers compensation outcome is (apparently) not important enough for the powerbrokers who make the rules.
Alongside the frustration is the determination to keep going. A friend sent this Steve Harvey clip to me. I believe with everything in me that the image I hold of a worker’s compensation process that is all and more that I know it can be.
The outcome of all that I have done, all that I am doing and everything that remains as yet untouched on the planning board comes down to something very simple. I heard and answered the call for change.
Yours in service,
Rosemary
Rosemary
PS I am feeding the determination that is within me, the frustration is just coming along for the ride.
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