It Pays to Care

Through our Model of Collaboration with the RACP, ANZSOM is proud to support the advocacy efforts of the College and the Australasian Faulty of Occupational and Environmental Medicine (AFOEM) in particular. A significant project is now underway aimed at improving the health and recovery outcomes for people who experience a work injury. The AFOEM have developed two complementary documents which focus on work injury management:

1. An evidence-informed document which presents the evidence regarding psychosocial factors as barriers to return to work and the evidence about how these barriers can be addressed. This paper describes ways to improve scheme delivery in the four central work injury domains: leadership and regulation, case management, the workplace and healthcare.
2. A values and principles paper which describes healthy insurance schemes and sets out why “it pays to care”.

Snapshot | Why 'it pays to care'

When an injury or medical condition occurs in a compensable setting, the chance of a poor health outcome is significantly higher than for same condition in a non-compensable setting. Work absence and long term disability rates are higher. Being out of work long term is associated with poorer physical and psychological health, and this is more likely in compensable settings. There is a need to reduce work disability and to ensure work injury systems are fit-for purpose.

Evidence indicates improvements will come through:

• systematic capture of psychosocial information for individual claims, with proactive management of biopsychosocial risks
• ensuring that scheme cultures, systems and processes don't create unnecessary barriers to recovery
• scheme operations that are based on the values and principles of fairness, including collaboration, timeliness, trust and reciprocity, personalised and respectful communication, and empowerment of stakeholders.

Click here to access It Pays to Care documents and resources on the RACP website, including videos of the launch.

Click here to download It Pays to Care key messages Australia (PDF) to support your advocacy.

Click here to download the It Pays to Care flyer