A person’s 20s is characterised by many “firsts”. Milestone experiences in these years (graduations, weddings, babies) will dramatically shape a person’s life course. But for Jackie, her early 20s had a first she couldn’t have anticipated: her first interaction with the workers’ compensation system.
Like the others, this was a first that would totally alter Jackie’s life course.
Note: Jackie’s initial compensation interactions were with a jurisdictional workers’ compensation scheme that has since been replaced. Her story, and the feelings, behaviours and principles she outlines, remain relevant for consideration by work injury stakeholders. This is the first of two parts on Jackie’s story.
While working with racehorses, an ideal role for a 22-year-old national equestrian competitor, Jackie was involved in a serious accident that ended with a horse collapsing on top of her. Multiple serious fractures to her pelvis, a fractured sacrum, and nerve damage to her pelvis and legs resulted.
Jackie says the injury initially left her unable to be a mother to her six-month-old, “I couldn’t cook, couldn’t clean, and couldn’t look after my baby”. Her equestrian identity as a horse-rider was also substantially damaged, “Riding horses wasn’t just my job, it was a significant part of my life.” Uncertainty loomed over these facets of her life and the many others impacted by the accident. Jackie was unsure what shape her life would take from here.
Initial claim
While Jackie details a relationship with workers’ compensation that evolved over time, her initial interactions were layered with an adjustment disorder caused by this life change. She described the system as, “quite damaging to [her] mental health.” Her workers’ compensation claim was initially denied for a period of 11 months, forcing a protracted legal proceeding including three tribunals.
Understanding that early intervention is crucial to overall success of rehabilitation, this period immediately post-injury should have been spent concentrating on recovery. Jackie, however, was left with no systemic support. Instead, she faced an uphill battle that left her, “mentally and physically drained.”
These early years of her recovery were characterised by an intense battle of willpower, as Jackie fought to maintain a strong locus of control. Her self-motivation was driven by a desire to be a mother to her child and return to a sense of normalcy. Much of this motivation, however, had to be channelled into keeping a positive frame of mind in the face of a system that, she felt, didn’t want her to succeed. Jackie states, “I was trying not to get caught up in the whole hate and sadness and anger, I guess. I wanted to really focus on my baby, on my life, and making things better for myself.” But that didn’t mean it was easy.
Jackie felt unsafe interacting with compensation stakeholders. Feelings of distrust and injustice were fostered by consistent negative interactions. She felt as if each communication from her claims team was an attempt to find a way to end her compensation. These interactions lacked empathy and were focused on instructing Jackie rather than listening to her. Jackie perpetually felt like her account was not being believed.
Jackie wouldn’t be surprised if her behaviour at this time was considered ‘non-compliant’ by her insurer. But, in her words, “Why would I want to talk to [them] if they just want to cut me off? Why would I want to engage with them when they don’t really care about me?”
“If you don’t feel like someone’s on your side, why would you call them back … When they were contacting me, they just wanted something out of me … I felt they didn’t want to help me.”
Constant Independent Medical Examinations (IMEs) without any explanation left Jackie feeling as though the insurer was using the process to check up on her, “when they could have just called me and asked.” IMEs felt like “constant kicks”, derailing her attempts to move on and build a new life after her injury.
At the heart of this struggle with the scheme was what Jackie described as a lack of collaboration. “When I would have assessments, they would come back and tell me what I could do … There was just no collaboration, I felt like I was just a number. They didn’t really care about me as a person because they hadn’t even asked me what I wanted to do or how I see my recovery going.”
“That was really damaging and I felt out of control of my own life.”
Building and growing
Three years on from her initial injury, Jackie was referred to a spinal surgeon who in turn referred her on to physiotherapy and exercise physiology. It here where Jackie’s recovery started to take shape with great pain education and proactive pain management strategies. “[They] got me back into life with reduced pain, which was really positive.”
“Getting good rehab that I needed? So imperative. I made leaps, I recovered so well after that. So, if that had have happened in the first year? That would’ve been fantastic.”
Just before this, however, Jackie met with a psychologist for a vocational assessment. This was the critical turning point in her journey. In the assessment, the psychologist recommended Jackie consider tertiary studies, which led her into occupational therapy.
While his recommendation was ultimately transformational for her journey, it was his support that touched Jackie most deeply. “Having someone that believed in me, that believed I could do more – look at me now! I’m an occupational therapist and I love my job, and I can help people!”
“It just takes one person to believe in you to make that difference and I try to be that person for other people. I believe if they’ve got an injury and they’re struggling to recover, I try to be that one person to believe in them.”
Jackie says that case managers can also be that person, can also, “do everything they can to help that individual achieve whatever their goal is.”
Learning from the past
Jackie’s story examples several of the key points made in the IPTC policy:
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Successful recovery is dictated by the psychological and social factors at play in someone’s life. A work injury can ripple through a person’s life, causing various problems and pains in perhaps unexpected spaces. Effectively managing an injury needs to take into account the whole of the person and their experience.
- Trusting, collaborative relationships are at the heart of effective work injury recovery. Jackie speaks of how she didn’t feel like an active participant in her own recovery. It’s important for effective and sustainable work injury management to centre the person, their experiences and their goals. As Jackie says, “they’re driving the bus!”
- And those relationships are built on effective communication. Breakdowns in communication left Jackie feeling unheard and unvalued. Better, kinder communication approaches may have helped to alleviate perceptions of unfairness and injustice.
- Early intervention is key. As Jackie said, if she had received high-quality allied health support early in her claim journey, the trajectory of her injury may have changed entirely.
It Pays to Care is immensely grateful to Jackie for sharing her lived experience as an injured worker. Her experiences, as well as the stories of countless others, are a crucial foundation for the future of work injury management.