Wonders of Workers' Compensation
September 11, 2023
The workers compensation system can be a challenging, and often daunting, space to traverse for those affected by an injury and even seasoned professionals who live and breathe all things workers compensation. Below are a series of questions or statements I have received from patients or from people who have received an injury or not yet in the system.
Where do I begin?
- Seek immediate first aid treatment and report the incident to your employer.
- See a doctor to discuss the injury with them and ask for a “First Certificate of Capacity”.
- Fill out a “Workers’ Compensation Form” (link in resources)
- Make a copy of each form and hand the original to your employer.
- Your employer has 5 working days to complete the section of the form relevant to them and lodge it with their insurer.
- The Insurer then has 14 days to review the claim and will inform you if the claim is accepted, disputed or pending.
What does each claim status mean?
- Accepted – you will receive wage compensation and compensation for reasonable treatment.
- Disputed - You will be informed as to why it is disputed. If you disagree you can ask for the claim to be reassessed. If you still disagree you can with the outcome, you can raise this further with the Workers’ Compensation Conciliation Service.
- Pending – The insurer is requiring further information. They have 10 days to acquire this information and reach a decision. If 10 days passes it defaults to the status of disputed.
Can you only claim physical injuries?
- Not at all! Psychological injuries are less common and harder to diagnose, however the avenue is there to pursue if your mental health has been affected. This can include scenarios such as a workplace bullying or stress from being overworked.
- Additionally, there are unique circumstances where hearing loss or asbestos related diseases can be compensated.
I am worried about my future employment. If I declare my injury, they won’t hire me, right?
- A common concern from many patients, and rightly so when it could affect your livelihood. A workplace does not have the right to ask you whether you have received or filed for a works’ compensation claim in the past. Nor are you under an obligation to disclose this to them.
- Your employer does have the right to know about any injuries or other medical conditions that may impact your role.
- Essentially, they cannot discriminate against you for having been in the works’ compensation system, however you have to be able to perform the requirements of the role you are applying for.
I don’t want to keep taking money while not working, I’m thinking about closing my claim and just pushing through the pain.
- To some people they can feel like a burden while not working and receiving compensation. You are not! An injury as the result of an accident or the workplace environment is not necessarily your fault. You are entitled to compensation you are receiving.
- Receiving and completing treatment prescribed to you to get you back to full function is extremely important for yourself and your employer. In a way you can view performing your prescribed exercises or other treatments as your temporary job role and that is what you are doing to earn your wage.
I am concerned about returning to full duties and hours. I have not worked a full day in months.
- It can be daunting going from attending appointments and conducting treatment at home, to returning to a full work week. We understand this and if appropriate someone known as a Vocational Rehabilitation Provider (Voc) can be brought onboard. This will be done in a gradual manner over a period of time, so you won’t become overwhelmed.
- A Voc’s role is to assist with developing a return-to-work plan. They will attempt to have this take place at your worksite on lighter or alternate duties and gradually increase your hours and the intensity of your duties over time.
Recourses
- Workcover WA Website: https://www.workcover.wa.gov.au/
- Workcover phone number: 1300 794 744
- Workers’ Compensation Form: https://www.workcover.wa.gov.au/resources/forms-publications/worker-forms/#claimform
- Workers’ Compensation Conciliation Service: https://www.workcover.wa.gov.au/resolving-a-dispute/workers-compensation-conciliation-service/
Cameron Addison
Workers Compensation Specialist (AEP, ESSAM)
Exercise Rehabilitation Services – WA
As the global population ages and the prevalence of musculoskeletal conditions continues to rise, the demand for orthopaedic surgeries has surged dramatically. With this increase comes a growing emphasis on not just the surgical intervention itself, but also on the preoperative phase as a critical window of opportunity to enhance patient outcomes. One of the most promising strategies emerging in this space is prehabilitation—a proactive, personalized approach to preparing patients physically and mentally for surgery. Prehabilitation can be broadly defined as a personalized exercise program designed to improve physical function and optimize recovery outcomes for any upcoming surgical intervention. In the context of workers compensation, prehabilitation offers additional value. By maintaining or even improving a patient’s physical function prior to surgery, individuals are often able to remain engaged in modified or light-duty work roles. This not only supports their psychological well-being and financial stability but also contributes to faster and more sustainable return-to-work outcomes post-surgery. A recent meta-analysis by Punnoose et al. 2023, found that a targeted prehabilitation program increased muscle strength, improved joint function and led to a higher health-related quality of life (HRQOL) scores. These findings were consistent with patients undergoing Total Knee Replacements (TKR), Total Hip Replacements (THR) and lumbar spine surgery. Some clinical applications are listed below: Targeted approach of 4-6 weeks, with 2 sessions per week. This aligns with physiological evidence suggesting that a minimum of 4–6 weeks of strength training is needed for neuromuscular adaptations. Mixture of supervised and unsupervised intervention Multimodal programs (e.g. combining exercise with education or psychological support) may enhance outcomes By improving outcomes and reducing recovery timeframes, prehabilitation stands out as a cost-effective, proactive approach to treatment. James Chandler Workers Compensation Specialist ‑ Team Leader South (AEP, ESSAM) Exercise Rehabilitation Services – WA
As Exercise Physiologists, a large part of our role is to empower an injured worker to integrate exercise into their lifestyle – something that is easier said than done for everyone! A common misconception about exercise, is that, for an effective workout, it must be a gruelling 1-hour session in a gym or a 10km stomach churning run, however this is not the case! Here are some alternatives and strategies to gradually make positive changes to your life: One easy way is to add movement to tasks you already do. Walking or biking instead of driving short distances, taking the stairs instead of the elevator, holding your newborn as you perform a few quick (and safe!) squats or completing short exercises during TV commercials are simple ways to stay active without setting aside extra time. Another is to schedule ‘mini’ workouts like any other appointment. Set aside just 20 to 30 minutes a few times a week—whether in the morning, during lunch, or in the evening. Utilising exercise equipment that we give you during our initial assessment and picking a handful of exercises that you may particularly enjoy, is a great shorter alternative. Treating these moments as important and ‘you’ time can help build a consistent habit. Exercising with others can make it more fun. Invite a friend for a walk, join a fitness class, or play a sport with family. When you combine social time with physical activity, it feels less like a task and more like enjoyment. The same goes for a sport or hobby that you may like, whether it’s swimming, yoga, hiking or dancing! Experimenting with the introduction of one of these strategies can be an easier first step to making a positive lifestyle change. With a little planning and creativity, exercise can become a natural part of your lifestyle, helping you stay healthy and energized without adding stress to your day. Alexander Gerry Workers Compensation Specialist (AEP, ESSAM) Exercise Rehabilitation Services – WA
If you have doom scrolled through Instagram/Facebook or YouTube recently you may have been bombarded with advertisements for a slew of different exercise programs. These all usually have something to do with what you value and target you with a preamble on how to get it, how did I shrink my waist size, how do I build muscle or how I rehabbed my knee pain. As an exercise physiologist it's my job to write these programs! Now although I don’t always enjoy interruptions to my news feed of cat videos and rugby highlights, I do actually think a lot of these programmes have merit! I love anything with a bit of structure that can help you progress yourself towards what you care about so today I wanted to write about one of my favourite programs of all time and that is the “Couch to 5km Running Programme” Why Running? I love running as an exercise choice, it gets you outdoors, it has increasing social connections via run clubs/park runs and is completely free! However, it’s hard to jump in to, I see a lot of people getting tripped up by some of the barriers that come with it. A lot of the people I see starting running don’t know about the many choices that come with exercise and in the exercise physiology business we call this the FITT principle! - Frequency – How often are you doing your running? - Intensity – How fast or slow are you running? - Time – How long should I run for? - Type – Why run over biking or rowing? A dedicated programme takes care of these for you, and I think the Couch to 5k programme does a fantastic job of introducing you to all these different ideas. Language! The first thing I love about the “Couch to 5k” is its language. The use of simple and direct language leaves a bit of room for interpretation. You can see clear above on your first Tuesday run you will run for 1 minute and walk for 1 minute. In this small interval that speed is utterly and entirely up to you. Go as slow as you like or as fast as you like however I want you to run for the entire minute! Keeping things simple is so important and this guidance is exactly where I would want you to start off as a beginner runner, have some fun and run! Progression! From week to week the running times can be seen to get bigger and bigger! Slowly but surely these intervals only increase by 1 or 2 minutes at a time. Between each session you will be able to notice small increases, but your fitness catches up with that! The whole point of a programme is that it starts small and works up, no single day itself should feel like an insurmountable workout but by the end you’re able to run a whole 5k! Rest! This program builds in rest days and rest periods so well. Each day is spaced out giving some time for you two recovers but not so much so you can get some fitness in! Within the workouts as well these intervals leave you working for the right amount of time each workout. Goals Too often when working out our goals are too big and lofty. Being able to make big changes start with small actions and goals. You can’t change yourself image in one day so I like the time frame of 6 weeks (in some programmes 6-12 weeks) because by the end we have a set definable goal of what we want to achieve, and we can really feel thar progression of fitness! Mathew Walker Exercise Physiologist Exercise Rehabilitation Services ‑ WA
