Occupational medicine specialist Dr Jennifer Christian is founder of the 60 Summits Project, a grassroots movement transforming North American disability benefits and workers’ compensation systems, says a more collaborative approach to return to work can make all the difference – and there’s no better time than the present.
“In the midst of a recession, when employers fear that lost productivity will cause their business to fail, and chronically ill, injured and aging employees fear that they will lose their jobs, the highlighting of return to work issues becomes even more important.”
Dr Christian will speak about the 60 Summits Project, when she arrives in Australia later this month for the Fresh Ideas on Injury Management conference held in Sydney and Melbourne.
The Project supports a more collaborative approach to workers’ compensation and return to work – an approach of which Australia’s Dr Mary Wyatt, also appearing at the conference, is a staunch advocate.
“There are so many different key players involved in return to work,” Dr Wyatt said; “doctors, rehabilitation providers, supervisors, HR staff, return to work coordinators, claims officers, insurers, lawyers, adjudicators – the list goes on.
“They are all involved in the process, and they are all usually unfamiliar with how each other sees these situations and what each other is doing.”
Wyatt, the editor of www.RTWMatters.org, says Australia stands to benefit from adopting a model similar to that which the Project promotes. The Sixty Summits approach is based on sixteen recommendations in the American College of Occupational and Environmental Medicine’s “Preventing Needless Work Disability by Helping People Stay Employed” report, led by Dr Christian.
In both countries return to work is a problem that needs addressing. In the US there are 4.1 million workplace injuries and 1.2 million people losing time from work per year.
[Dr Christian and Dr Wyatt will speak at the Fresh Ideas on Injury Management conference in Sydney, 26 August and Melbourne, 28 August 2009.]
