When Managing Psychological Injury Claims, What Really Works?

“There is now substantial evidence that people making psychological injury claims take much longer on average to return to work, have slower recovery trajectories, report poorer claims management experiences, and have more costly claims.” (Iles, Hogan, Craig and Collie, 2020, p. 6).

Our Co-founder, Suzanne Gibson, recently discussed this very topic, proposing strategies that could turn these outcomes around, in a webinar she presented on behalf of ARPA. In this webinar, she proposed that the return-to-work process could be enhanced for people with a psychological injury through the use of psychological treatment approaches that have a strong evidence base.

This was also a topic recently examined by researchers at Monash University as part of a project developed by the NSW State Insurance Regulatory Authority (SIRA). SIRA are interested in determining which interventions are most effective in helping people with a work-related psychological condition.

The researchers found that the only intervention that had evidence demonstrating its effectiveness was psychological interventions, usually delivered by psychologists. They also found that a consistent recommendation of interventions was for them to be specifically tailored to meet the needs of each individual person receiving them. They emphasise that for this recommendation to be met, the assessment of needs should be completed by highly skilled professionals (Iles et al, 2020).

It is fantastic to see greater attention being given to establishing an evidence base for interventions aimed at helping people struggling with work-related psychological injuries. We, at HeadSmart EAP, will be eagerly awaiting the outcomes of the next parts of the project.

References:

Iles, R., Hogan, C., Craig, A. and Collie, A. (2020). Work-connected interventions for people with psychological injuries. Retrieved from https://www.sira.nsw.gov.au/fraud-and-regulation/research/work-connected-interventions-for-people-with-psychological-injuries on 26th August 2020.