The great workers compensation independent medical assessment injustices! Anyone suffering from PTSD or other work related mental health injuries has my total sympathy and support. Going down the path of seeking reasonable compensation (not a free handout) is in itself a very stressful, depressing and in the end totally soul destroying experience. Which is what I think the insurers want! For those suffering and are not sure of the compensation process let me give a true account of my experience. Firstly the injured person needs to lodge a claim for compensation via a legal firm. ( i had difficulty early on trying to find a firm who would touch mental health injuries). You then have to be assessed by a qualified psychiatrist to determine your level of impairment. If you are assessed at 15% or greater you have grounds for compensation. I was assessed at 23%. The psychiatrist I was sent to is a recognised expert in PTSD and runs clinics for sufferers! The insurer automatically disregards your assessment and sends you to one of their psychiatrists. You can guess what their assessments come back at! Miine was 7% !!! And I am not alone here. I know of others with similar experiences. It does not matter how you present or what you say in the assessment process because they are on the insurers books and will obviously assesss you very low. So, your legal rep should fight this assessment and the process then progresses to the Workers Comp Board where you argue for the Independent Medical Assessment to be arranged. This is where the process totally fails. I was sent to see a Psychiatrist and when I met him in his office he greeted me with a very warm welcome and insisted he was there to support people like me who were suffering PTSD and in fact he said the public expect professionals like him to support emergency workers and ex servicemen and women. What a load of S@#*! He instantly produced the report from the insurers Psych. and proceeded to make reference to throughout the interview. Given my state of mind during this process I was in no condition to recognise the importance of this at the time and if I had of been clerer in my mind would have insisted this action was inappropriate as how could his assessment of me be independent when he was reading from a dodgy and corrupt report? So, the outcome of this INDEPENDENT MEDICAL ASSESSMENT is very predictable. Yes, he also assessed me at 7% but not only was this a coincidence his report mirrored the insurers report. The independent report was full of lies, untruths and totally fictional comments which I apparently made during the interview. As this is the final step in the compensation process the injured worker iss left with no avenue to pursue. Of course you can appeal the final report but there has NEVER been a successful appeal upheld. Are we surprised. Not really. If anyone is contemplating persuing compensation for their work related injury (PTSD) beware. The process is as I described,, very depressing and does nothing but make your state of mind worse. I now have dark days reflecting on this experience and thank the staff at St.John of God hospital for their continued support in managing my depression and associated disorders. Not all days are a battle. Some days I cope quite well but when the dark comes it hits hard. I hope this post helps others and if anyone needs a chat just ask. There is no shame in suffering PTSD, depression or anxiety disorders. Craig
Posted on: Tue, 28 Oct 2014 21:27:28 +0000
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