Dr Gary Fulcher (second from left) suffered burns to 60 per cent of his body and lost all his fingers in a car fire driving from one workplace to another.
New research studies have found up to 30 per cent of injured people had a negative experience in the compensation system.
The joint initiative of Monash University, WorkSafe Victoria and Transport Accident Commission presented possible causes of negative experiences of injured people in the compensation system.
Chief Research Officer at the Institute for Safety, Compensation and Recovery Research (ISCRR), Dr Alex Collie, said negative experiences resulted in increased stress, which in some cases can lead to mental health problems.
Dr Collie said one of the most problematic aspects of the compensation system for injured people was the independent medical assessment to determine whether a person should continue receiving compensation or rehabilitation.
“Some people going through the process who are already probably vulnerable because of their injuries, or who might have a psychological issue or something else, they find that experience quite stressful because it’s going to see a doctor, a doctor that’s not there to treat them, but to judge them,” Dr Collie says.
Dr Collie said further problems arise when an injured person is given two conflicting recommendations, one from their own doctor and another from the independent medical assessment.
“You can imagine how that leads someone who is already injured, away from work, having a hard time already, to begin to feel a bit stressed about the whole experience,” Dr Collie says.
In 1996 Dr Gary Fulcher experienced catastrophic injuries from a car fire when he was driving from one worksite to another.
He suffered burns to 60 per cent of his body and had all of his fingers amputated.
A highly experienced clinical psychologist who had worked in the area of trauma before his accident, Dr Fulcher went into the compensation with a great understanding of both sides of the system.
He said one of the most interesting aspects of his time in the compensation system was reading the medical report at the end of each doctor assessment and seeing all of them have a version of, “This man will never work again”.
“The situation is that you are encouraged to accept your injuries, but if I had accepted those conclusions I would never have worked again, and yet I’ve been continuing to work for 17 years since my injury and have contributed to a whole range of health fields by doing so,” Dr Fulcher says.
Dr Fulcher said from his professional and personal experience the compensation system itself sets up an adversarial situation.
He said having an independent medical assessment, as well as an assessment by the injured person’s treating doctor, could cause patients to be defensive.
“The way they defend against these accusations is to become sicker, that’s not very smart in terms of return to work,” Dr Fulcher says.
Dr Fulcher said re-telling the story of how they became injured further traumatizes the injured person and makes their post-trauma reaction worse.
He said removing the multiple assessment process would save money and start a situation where the injured person is encouraged to get back to work and does not have to defend themselves against disbelief.
