A Journey to the Future of Injury Management from an International Perspective 18 March 2013: EBIM Conference Nikki Brouwers Interact 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 morbidity 2.Family History 3. Personality 4.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: 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 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