That's the promise we make when we say we're going to return someone to work or return them to wellness. It's a tall order. Telling someone you're going to return them to a former state is almost like telling someone to get the wrinkles out of a piece of balled-up aluminum foil. Even with extreme measures, the likelihood of getting a smooth Hershey Kiss wrapper out of a pea-sized wad is nearly impossible. I am in no way saying injured workers are like balled up scraps of aluminum -- but we cannot promise everyone the health and ability they may have experienced pre-injury. Even without an injury my body has aged 24 hours more than it was the same time yesterday. In the past 24 hour hours deterioration has occurred, plates of the earth's lithosphere have shifted ever so slightly, and maybe an ice cap has melted ever so slightly more today than yesterday. It is very unlikely, if not improbable that we'd be able to easily eliminate the effects of aging, prevent the earth's plates from shifting or restore the polar ice caps.
The workers' compensation laws are designed to indemnify an injured worker, or to "make them whole."
For a larger proportion of work injuries, that’s likely the
case -- the cut finger that doesn't leave a scar, the bee sting, the ankle
sprain that has resolved. We can't make
the same promise for many, more severe injuries that require surgery, produce
scars, or leave injured workers with permanent restrictions. The law tries to indemnify injured workers
for their loss of income, medical treatment and sometimes permanent
impairment. But the injured worker will
never be the same as they were pre-injury -- it's impossible for me to be the
same as I was a week ago. The point is
-- we cannot stop change, nor can we go back and prevent the future from
happening. That is, unless of course
you're Marty McFly.
It sounds as if this goes against all that we promise --
Return to Wellness?
The Return to Wellness promise is alive and well. I can't tell you that we can return
everyone. These cases demand a frank and
honest discussion about what the injured worker's future looks like. When there are likely permanent restrictions
or impairment, how do we manage that going forward? I'm not talking about mitigating losses, I'm
talking about reconciling who you were before an injury occurred and who you
are going to be in the future. For that
logger who is not going back into the woods, it can be devastating. For the mason who has always taken great
pride in their skilled work, it's like losing part of your identity.
As soon as we recognize that this may be the outcome, the
sooner we must discuss what the future looks like for that injured worker. Yes, it may not involve chopping down trees
or building stone walls, but it has to mean something else. This
is reality, albeit sometimes a harsh one.
Life goes on after the work injury and it goes on after the claims
settlement. Medical providers can only
take an injured worker so far and they can't, unfortunately and in most cases,
return you to where they were before the injury occurred. All the more reason to work to get an injured
worker the best possible outcome -- this is going to be their life and their
future long after the claim closes. We
may be stepping out of the realm of statutory benefits, but we can never lose
sight of the fact that these are peoples' lives that are impacted by work
injuries. We must do all that we can to
minimize that impact.
References:
Return. (n.d.). Retrieved November 21, 2014, from
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/return
No comments:
Post a Comment