RETURN TO WORK

When you’re injured the thought of returning to work can be scary but the cost of delaying it can be significant. You can help your workers get back on the job with care and support. But everyone is different and needs a personalised approach to make sure they’re safe. 

There are often a team of people involved in helping someone recovering from injury or illness. Our occupational therapists work in collaboration with medical practitioners and other allied health professionals to help you get back to work. 

The objective of any return to work strategy is to make sure the results are sustainable. Returning to work too quickly may cause more harm but we can suggest ways to help speed up the process where appropriate. The earlier you start planning to return to work the better.   

The first step in our approach is to assess the injury or illness and how it may impact the person’s ability to do their job. We also speak to the other medical practitioners to understand their perspective and liaise with the employer to make sure everyone is on the same page. We then put in place a plan to get back to the worksite. The plan may involve a slow and steady approach to move from lighter duties to returning back to their original position and training to work in a different way. There may also be modifications that could be made to the worksite to make it safer and expedite the return to work. Training workers to manage their pain and put in place strategies to reduce the chance of being injured again is also critical. Once they’re back at work, we also monitor progress to ensure pain is and the risk of injury is minimised. 

Employers also have regulatory and compliance obligations to ensure they provide a safe work environment and facilitate someone returning to work after injury or illness. We can help you understand your obligations and put in place strategies to meet them.  

Our experienced occupational therapists have helped workers return to work successfully following injury and illness.