Monday Muses ~ thoughts
Rosemary McKenzie-Ferguson
Founder at Craig's Table- Recipient Summa Comp Laude 2021-22 Recipient Bloom Making a Difference Award 2023
Blue Tree Project ??Thank you Amber for reminding me to mention the Blue Tree Project. All too often after RUOK Day we overlook the need to continue the conversations or to reach out Blue Trees help us to just talk.
Last week was interesting in many different ways. There was yet another medical visit, mayhaps it is just because I am curious or because the surgery I required altered from local to general anaesthetic and from 30 minutes to almost 3 hours, I really needed answers as to what and why and where to now. Before the appointment I wrote down all the questions I had; the need to know and to understand was and remains important. Over the last few months I worked very hard on building a solid relationship with various members of the medical team, there were very hard conversations, diagrams drawn and there were moments of fear. Through it all the one point that the medical team understood about me, no matter how harsh the outcome might be, I required them to be 100% honest with me. *Dr Joe was both clinical and understanding, he walked me through everything, including explaining the notes he wrote and the research papers he referred to. As a direct result of the conversations I was able to mentally and emotional handle each step and I know what it is I need to do in order to not undo *Dr Joe’s brilliant work.
The reason I have outlined the last few months is because every week I speak with members of the injured worker community; the majority of them have no concept of what questions to ask, others are too fearful to ask and some still cross their fingers and hope for the best.?And then there are the providers who don’t know how to have THAT uncomfortable conversation. It may surprise many providers but at Craig’s Table when the hardest reality needs to be discussed we have found the best thing to do is simply lay out all the information and work our way through in order to arrive at a person’s ability to make an informed decision. It is amazing the options and ways forward that can be found when the 5 R’s are explained and we explore all manner of possible ways forward.
I know it sounds kinda strange but even after all the time that the modern era of workers compensation has been in Australia, (mid to late 80’s depending on which of the ?jurisdictions is being looked at)?there really is scant ways for the injured worker community to learn just what is required from them or understand the concept of mutual responsibility. In short no one teaches the injured worker community how to navigate the detour that workers compensation is in their lives.
All of this became even more interesting when Return to Work Matters published A new focus on case management Again it is hard to believe that after all this time we are still discussing the need for adequate training for case managers.
A few years back the invitation to work with some case managers arrived, a week to “walk” case managers through different aspects in real time. It took scant planning, just read through some files and put into place what was possible. One person decided the “game” wasn’t really a challenge. I discussed my thoughts with the team involved and set up the following incident- require the “player” to go to a supermarket and purchase afternoon tea for 20 people; I know you are thinking that sounds easy to do: you would be incorrect. The person had to be in a wheelchair, had to use a access taxi buy what was on the shopping list and stay as near as possible under the budget. The day before the shopping trip was to happen I went to the selected supermarket, the items on the shopping list included items that were not at wheelchair level, the shopping list did not provide brand names, just items that could be anything from quality name brand to no-name brand. And the timeline was set in order for the "player" to be back in time to arrange the afternoon tea.
Sadly the person failed the challenge but gained a very valuable insight. The failure came in not asking for assistance?when it was required, instead the person merely got out of the wheelchair to reach up or reach down, at the check out when the shopping basket was more than the money allowed the excess was paid for by a personal credit card. The player had forgotten to arrange for an access taxi so avoid being late, the "player" once more got out of the wheelchair and folded it to place into the boot of an ordinary taxi.
The person who arranged for the week of training and I showed the secret video to the person, no excuses were offered or put forward instead the case manager said “if this was an injured worker they would be breached.” My hope is that when Return to Work Matters does publish articles in regards to case manager training they also include the need for working knowledge.
领英推荐
Two interesting videos arrived last week, the first was from Geoff Ford speaking about pain the other was ?Daniel Scali New Longest Plank Ever - Guinness World Records ??Daniel has Complex Regional Pain Syndrome ?I have to admit the thought of just attempting a plank is enough to send me into fits of laughter; however I do understand the concept of not allowing the fear of pain run my life.
Research Project Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder Webinar/Conferences SafeScript NSW: What Real Time Prescription Monitoring means for you?
Podcast
Just because Jim Haynes’ not-so-famous Aussie characters
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Now 'tis time to wander to the kitchen and prepare dinner.
Yours in service
Rosemary
Ambassador Survivor’s R Us ... Supporting the fight against Domestic Abuse.
3 年Failure delivers answers for success in the future. Learning from failure is much more powerful and empowering, then having something handed to you on a gold platter.