There is always a lot of discussion around how we help people who have experienced a health event in their lives recover, rehabilitate and return to work (RTW). There are some common themes that arise whenever I read social media thread, a blog post or when I speak at conferences…. and that is: how do we motivate people to want to participate? Motivating our clients is somewhat easier when you have a big stick you can “motivate” them with. The threat of losing one’s financial security if one … [Read more...]
Rehab: Why Are We Offering Transaction but Asking for Transformation?
When Your Rehab Client Says, “I’m Out”
"I don't want to participate anymore." Have you heard this from a client before? What happens when our assumptions as rehabilitation professionals don’t align with the realities of our clients? You have spent time reading through a client’s file, developing rapport, taking a lot of notes, gaining an understanding of their condition, you research the evidence-based functional expectations of their recovery process, and in your mind you’ve started mapping out the process for recovery and … [Read more...]
What Our Clients Are Really Afraid of
Fear. This word has come up for me a lot lately in my work as a Rehabilitation Consultant. So many of our clients are driven by fear. Fear of failure. Fear of loss. Fear of judgement, of exile, of never being the same as they used to be before they got sick. Being able to identify fear in our clients is important. But identifying what's really driving that fear... Well, it takes time. It takes more questions. And it requires an understanding of what makes us behave the way we do. So … [Read more...]
Life Insurers Do Get it Right, Too!
There has been a lot in the news lately about how poorly income protection and life insurers are treating people who have purchased policies. Like every industry, there are bad decisions and there are good decisions. However... like our teachers, police officers and politicians, little gets said about life insurers when they do good. Please know I am not an advocate for any life insurer or for any client. I am an advocate for good rehabilitation. And by good I mean timely, I mean customized … [Read more...]
Dear Dr Google
Continuing on the topic of medical information, opinion, and recovery, I want to talk about the medical information our clients get from a different kind of doctor. Dr. Google. Our clients are more informed and curious than ever before. Millions of resources about their condition or illness are available with one quick internet search. How many of us have worked with a client (or several) who bring their own research to meetings with us? How do you approach this? I'd argue that the … [Read more...]
The Health Benefits of Work in Action: A Case Study
Continuing on from my post last week about the barriers to making the health benefits of work a reality, I wanted to explore what happens for our clients whenit is a reality. One of the unfortunate side effects of providing rehabilitation for our clients is that normally we're asked to cease our involvement after a person returns to work. This means that we rarely get to see the positive effect that being back at work can have on a person's life. However myself and my team are lucky enough … [Read more...]
Making The Health Benefits of Work a Reality
So... we've all heard a lot about the health benefits of work in recently, haven't we? As Rehabilitation Professionals, this isn't new information to us. We're all about helping our clients utilise good work as a tool to improved function and recovery. But... we all know that the "health benefits of work" isn't exactly an easy thing to implement. It does require a big change to get everyone on board with this new mindset and to actually implement it in a meaningful way that results in … [Read more...]
What’s The Deal with Chronic Pain?
Guest post by Natalie Taylor, Rehabilitation Counsellor at Purple Co. So here's a can of worms: what's happening for a person with chronic pain? I had the opportunity to attend a chronic pain recovery workshop this weekend at NeurRa (Neuroscience Australia) facilitated by Prof. Kevin Vowles. For most of his career, Dr Vowles has been researching how we can help people with chronic pain get their lives back. There was one fundamental truth that kept presenting itself to me over the … [Read more...]