This is no secret to doctors, lawyers, trade union and employer
advocates who specialise in workers' compensation matters.
Nor is it a surprise for many workers caught up in the WorkCover
system after a serious injury.
What is not so well-known is that the pressure some claimants
experience as a result of being on compensation creates such a
grinding sense of despair and hopelessness that they start thinking
about suicide as a solution to their problems. Most don't follow
through, but a few do.
Although WorkCover is not necessarily to blame, there have
been at least 14 reported WorkCover-related suicides in South
Australia in recent years. There have probably been more. But
in any event, 14 is far too many.
A large part of the problem is that workers' compensation
schemes are inherently adversarial, often resulting in claims
disputes that have anti-therapeutic effects on the people they
are supposed to help.
Disputes over the amount of weekly payments workers are
entitled to, ongoing eligibility for compensation, return to
work plans and other claims management issues all provide
fertile ground for the creation of adversarial relations
between injured workers, insurers and employers.
Most people injured at work are back on the job within a
month, usually without any adverse effect as a result of
being on the WorkCover system. But for those with more
serious injuries, it can be a very different story.
Being unable to return to work for an extended period can
have a devastating effect on a worker's self-esteem. Not
being able to work following an injury also frequently means
being unable to enjoy the amenities of life the rest of us take
for granted - like going for a walk, playing with the children
or being able to get through the day without pain-killing drugs.
The last thing injured workers need is a workers' comp
system that makes life even harder. Yet this is what repeatedly
happens.
No job, claims managers that don't believe you're really injured,
and a dysfunctional, one-size-fits-all rehabilitation system all
too often mean injured workers are stripped of their humanity
and reduced to nothing more than a "claim".
The Rann Government's draconian 2008 WorkCover changes,
backed by the Liberal Opposition, have made the situation a
whole lot worse.
Big cuts in compensation payments for the seriously injured
and new legal obstacles that undercut their ability to challenge
poor claims decisions means the system is now more
adversarial and demeaning than at any time in WorkCover's
history.
So, what can be done to prevent WorkCover-related suicides?
As a first step we need to start talking about it. Unless the
veil of invisibility surrounding this issue is lifted, more people
will die and more families will bear a burden of heartbreaking grief.
Practical assistance and advice to help families and other
stakeholders in identifying injured workers most at risk of
taking their own lives is another important step.
It is also essential, of course, to deal with the root causes
of the problem. This means reducing the toxic adversarial
climate that has been allowed to build up within the
WorkCover environment.
To accomplish this, action is needed on at least three major fronts.
The first involves rolling back the worst aspects of Mr Rann's
2008 legislative changes to the scheme.
The second requires an overhaul of existing rehabilitation
arrangements, including retraining, to assist injured workers
return to meaningful employment.
The third, and in many ways most important, is the need to
create a workers' compensation culture that supports, rather
than stigmatises, people who have had the misfortune of
being seriously injured as a result of their employment.
If the Government is serious about preventing more
WorkCover-related suicides this needs to happen sooner, not later.
* BeyondBlue info line 1300 22 4636 or www.beyondblue.org.au
- Kevin Purse is a Senior Research Fellow at the University of
South Australia and a former WorkCover director.
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