Monday Muses ~vile~degrading~humiliating part three
Rosemary McKenzie-Ferguson
Founder at Craig's Table- Recipient Summa Comp Laude 2021-22 Recipient Bloom Making a Difference Award 2023
Below is taken from a document that was shared with me, I have removed certain names, Kathie has granted me permission to publish parts of the document here so you can read for yourself how Phoenix [Kathie} rose from the destruction that was wrought upon her being, not just by the people who employed her, but by the very system we are told is in place to care.
Kathie was manipulated and abused, not only were nude images of her required, but the very people who she sought shelter with continued the harm and the abuse.
I have attempted to make sense of the document that Kathie Melocco shared with me, it is written in such perfect deliberate bureaucratic double speak, it uses a lot of words and says nothing.
However there are words within it that raised alarm bells and explanations must be sought.
Third paragraph, second sentence "Due to an absence of records maintained by the Sensitive Claims Team, and the fact that some communication may have occurred on personal devices..."
Try hard as I have, I am unable to understand how it is that a dedicate Team within the New South Wales workers compensation authority "failed to maintain records". I have worked closely with people within multiple workers compensation authorities over many years, the one thing they all do is record everything. They would know how many paper clips have been allocated to a desk, so to say that the Sensitive Claims Team did not write-keep-maintain records is nothing short of a cop out.
Has there been a cover up, or was the person responsible simply not up to the task? I am not able to answer either question.
I suspect that it is a mixture of both.
What is more concerning is the ability of the Sensitive Claim Team has now been bought into attention. Give the nature of the work carried out by the Sensitive Claim Team, it is understood that accurate record keeping is paramount with every workers compensation claim. The author of this letter has now brought into question every claim that the Sensitive Claim Team has handled and continues to handle. Is there correct record keeping, is there training of people who are entrusted with the delicate balance of ensuring the safety of those who are at risk of self-harm?
The Kathie Melocco we see today is a strong forthright courageous and capable person. But that is not who she was as she fought for her life during her time on New South Wales workers compensation. When Shattered comes out, you will see a re-enactment and like me you will wonder just where and how did Kathie regain herself, how did she find the will to pick up a video camera and record not just her journey but the journeys of others and the history that binds us all together.
None of this is easy. All of it has to be told.
***************************************
There must be a Federal election soon because the weekend Street Corner meetings have started up again.
Last Saturday morning armed with as much information as possible on a USB I attended a Street Corner meeting, I had at most 5 minutes to speak with a Federal Member regarding Shattered. The first response was "I don't handle workers compensation, it's not a part of my brief" To which I responded Shattered is your brief, this impacts everyone not just the people involved in making the docuseries. I explained my part regarding tampered/fabricated medico-legal Reports and the actual Hansard not this redacted one. The next response was "I don't know that I will be able to open the USB on the office computer, there are rules about USB use" my reply was "do you need me to give you directions to the public library, the public library allows personal USB's to be used."
Over the coming weeks I will go to every Street Corner meeting I can get to, I really will not care which political person is holding the meeting, I will go and I will push Shattered because the injured worker community have the right to be seen to be heard and to be acknowledged. For too long we have been dismissed as trouble makers for no other reason than to discredit what we have been saying. Truth is uncomfortable,
As the local Federal Member discovered on Saturday morning, I will not back down, I will not accept "this is not my brief"
My parting words to the Federal Member, "the Rio Tinto and BHP class action that made the newspapers last week is nothing compared to the Class Action that Shattered will start, this goes over every State and Territory, it is decades of abuse of power".
In truth what we are about to see in a festering wound laid bare, there will need to be several forms of Inquiry, among them will need to be a Coroner Inquiry regarding the number of attempted and completed suicides that were entirely preventable had the workers compensation process not abused the most vulnerable members of the injured worker community.
***************************************
Over the past few months there has been copious discussion regarding Non-Disclosure Agreements.
I raise this here because people will say and they will be told that they will not be able to take part in any form of legal action that comes from Shattered because they have signed a NDA. I am not a lawyer, I am not a legal advocate, I am a community advocate. What I do know is that every legal agreement can only be signed when the Parties involved are truthful to each other.
If an NDA was signed as part of a settlement process to end a workers compensation claim, and the workers compensation claim has been tainted [polite word] by a fabricated/tampered medico-legal Report, then the closure of the workers compensation claim becomes invalid. Again, the ONLY way to know if the the medico-legal Report is accurate is via Legal Discovery. As I said in a meeting just recently it is not possible to write a medico-legal Report that required measurements including weight and height of the person when during the 9-minute appointment there were no physical examinations done.
Thus the NDA this person signed at closure of the workers compensation claim is [to say the most polite thing possible] questionable.
***************************************
***************************************
****************************************
Place Holder
Heal Retreat will be held on the 1st June 2025 International Injured Worker Day
All the details are being worked out, however if you would like to be a part of this event please send and email to [email protected]
领英推荐
****************************************
Conferences-Panels-Training-Webinars-Industry Groups 2025
Call for Papers
Envisioning and Exploring Recovery from Moral Injury An interdisciplinary conference Durham, United Kingdom 7-9 April 2025 Paper required Friday 6 December 2024.
********************************
Podcast/Radio interview
********************************
It has cooled down considerably this evening, best I make a cup of tea then venture out to water the plants before pondering what to prepare for dinner.
Yours in service
Rosemary
Marlo remains in the Christmas music spirit, I think he is missing the northern hemisphere winter and the snow on the fur trees.
A few days before we lost Don he asked me "why don't they listen, why don't they believe me?"
At the time I did not have the answers Don was looking for -now I do.
If people are surprised by these types of reports, they fail to understand that the writers are lawyers. iCare has a staff of about 40-50 lawyers in their complaints and review departments. Their response letters are almost predictable—they take a protectionist stance towards their service providers, whether it's a claims service provider or a third party they use. These letters are often written with a mix of jargon and partial facts, but rarely present the full picture. Keep in mind that you are dealing with the largest monetary bureaucracy in the government. Today, I actually received a call from the minister's office in response to my concern over this very issue. I have a meeting scheduled with them and the Secretary in the new year to discuss this in-depth as an inquiry participant.
Retired
2 个月Many thanks Rosemary for another good read
Good Human | Successful at Life | I start, reset & grow orgs | Onset-of-Injury System | Catastrophic Injury & Case Management SME | Strategizer | Editor | Ghostwriter | Volunteer Organizer for Decorate-A-Villa Day @ GKTW
2 个月Once again, Rosemary, you have presented further eye-opening examples and proof that action needs to be taken. Keep on!