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A. Richey

Articles by ‘A. Richey’
Bus Wellness Guide 2: A guide for managers

Managers and supervisors can have an enormous impact on employee health, wellness and safety. They monitor how well policies promote performance and productivity.

Psychological Cases: developing a psychologically healthy workplace

The workplace is a social environment. For many, this is one of the most enjoyable aspects of their job. For others, depending on the workplace, the negative impacts on their psychology can be...

Speaking Up 4: When injured workers need to speak up

Effective communication is particularly important when an injured worker is returning to work after injury.

Speaking Up 3: Staff speaking up

As an employee, it's often seen as easier to keep quiet, but the reality is that you need to speak up.

Speaking Up 2: Employers enabling open communication

Many employees tend to be wary of communicating openly in the workplace, so what can employers do to help them to open up?

Speaking Up 1: The Benefits of Open Communication

Open communication in the workplace is sign of a positive workplace culture.

Lifestyle Factors: Nutrition & RTW

Absenteeism due to employee health costs Australian businesses around $7 billion annually and poor nutrition plays a large part in it.

Prehabilitation: improving the results of surgery

Prehabilitation is an approach to aid people recover from surgery and increase the likelihood of a good outcome.

Lifestyle Factors and RTW: Alcohol

Alcohol and smoking are the most common legal drugs in use in Australia today.

Lifestyle Factors and RTW: Drugs

According to NDSHS data, workers are more likely to have used illicit drugs in the past 12 months (17%) compared to people not in the paid workforce (12%).

Lifestyle Factors and RTW: Fatigue

Fatigue is often the result of a lack of sleep, prolonged mental or physical work, or lengthy periods of stress or anxiety. Sound familiar?

Lifestyle Factors and RTW: Fitness

Fitness lowers the risk of injury and aids recovery, but 71% of the Australian working population aren't getting enough exercise.

Disputes: at what cost?

If an employee is suspected of 'gaming the system,' is it worth investigating the matter further and entering into a dispute? We take a look at the costs involved.

Dispute Resolutions: How does your jurisdiction stack up?

The CPM report provides information on disputation rates and dispute resolution rates across Australia and New Zealand schemes. The 2015 report is the 17th report analysing year on year workers...

Disputes: is avoidance the best policy?

Workers compensation disputes are often both costly and time consuming. While sometimes they're necessary, generally they should be avoided – but how can you do this?

Claims Process: the stress of making a claim

When a worker is injured, there might be fears for their job stability, financial burdens, or concern that they will never be able to regain their previous lifestyle.

Medical treatment: the importance of early access

Delayed access to medical treatment means delayed recovery.

Dr Melita Giummarra: Injury, Compensation and Perceptions of Injustice

Monash University in association with the Transport Accident Commission conducted a study into perceptions of injustice, chronic pain and pain-related disability.

Compensation: does it do more harm than good?

Professor Ian Cameron from the University of Sydney spoke at the 2016 ISCRR Forum on ways that the compensation claims procedures can be changed as well as other possible interventions.

Psychological Cases: prevention is better than the cure

The workplace is a social environment. For many, this is one of the most enjoyable aspects of their job. For others, depending on the workplace, the negative impacts on their psychology can be...

Orebro: the questionnaire you need to know about

The Orebro Musculoskeletal Pain Questionnaire (or OMPQ) used to be known as the Acute Back Pain Screening Questionnaire.

Vic Ombudsman: inquiry into workers' compensation

The Victorian Ombudsman, Deborah Glass, has begun an investigation into the handling of workers’ compensation claims.

Management tips: Resolving conflict in the workplace

Unresolved conflict can cause many problems in the workplace. Don't let it!

Self-Management: training the treaters

Self-management is a vital part of recovery from illness, but how can treaters be trained to encourage self-management in their patients?

Workplace Incivility: where are your manners?

Incivility is being rude, discourteous and showing a lack of regard for others. The behaviour harms the target, whether intentionally or unintentionally. It may also occur in the cyberspace, such...

Workplace Nonchalance: who cares?

Nonchalant employees are not unhappy. They're not disgruntled. They’re people who show up day after day and go through the motions.

Wellness: a whole of industry approach

While the health and wellness concerns of the bus industry are similar to other industries across the transport area, their methodology may provide a useful template to the wider workplace community.

Telephone coaching for people with chronic diseases

Telephone counselling has become an increasingly popular method for providing health education, and advice on managing symptoms. It also offers emotional support at difficult times, but...

Grief at work: when an employee dies

Managing the aftermath of an employee death is extraordinarily challenging. What do managers need to know and do when the worst happens?

Mental Health and Cancer

The diagnosis of any serious disease can have an impact on mental health; for the person afflicted as well as their family and friends.

Grief in the workplace: the death of a loved one

Employees who have lost a loved one need support in the workplace. Grief is not a fast or easy process. Support from the workplace can make a major difference to those affected.

Cancer and Fatigue: in the workplace

When dealing with cancer, fatigue is a common side effect of treatments. It may include physical, emotional or mental tiredness, and is often unpredictable, hitting without warning.

Historical Workplace Diseases: we've come a long way

The history of work disease is as old as the concept of work itself. This article takes a look back in time at some of the serious and deadly workplace hazards which were faced in the past.

Chronic Pain in the Workplace: a psychological approach

Dr Matt Graham, a registered psychologist and team psychologist at OrionHealth, explores the skill sets needed to assist employees to return to work.

Banishing Burnout: Strategies for a Constructive Engagement with Work

Dr Michael Leiter, a professor at the Centre for Organisational Research and Development at Acadia University, offers strategies for enabling employees to constructively engage at work and avoid...

Learned helplessness in RTW

'Learned helplessness' is the idea that some people who experience repeated setbacks will eventually develop a passive response to problems. How can you help and understand injured workers who...

Surgeons: what can other organisations learn from the report?

The Royal Australian College of Surgeons recently released a report into discrimination, bullying and sexual harassment in the practice of surgery. What lessons have been learnt and how are they...

Mental Health: developing an action plan for your workplace - part 2

Once your action plan has been developed, what are the next steps for implementation?

Mental Health: developing an action plan for your workplace - part 1

An estimated one in five employees will be impacted by a mental health condition at any one time in Australia.

Critical Ideas for the Psychologically Healthy Workplace

In this webinar on Conflict, Emotion, Incidents, & Behaviour, Pierre Nadeau, Respectful Workplace Specialist at Proactive ReSolutions, explores the key ideas to help you to deal with problematic...

Mental Stress in Australia: Compensation Statistics part 1

Work-related mental stress places a burden on the health and welfare of employees, as well as having an impact on workplace productivity and the Australian economy.

RTW cooperation is more effective than control

Cooperation is vital in return to work. Whose buy-in is essential? How can you get it? And why should RTW Coordinators prioritise a team approach?

Health and Wellness in the Workplace: how to promote it

Every business wants to increase productivity and make money. Many businesses are, however, unaware of the benefits to their 'bottom line' finances, of investing in staff well-being.

Rehab Providers: how they can influence managers

Rehabilitation providers interact with many of the key people in return to work. Arguably, the most important impact on RTW is from management – so how can rehabilitation providers have an...

Case management in a nutshell

The management of the work attendance of people with health condition is sometimes called case management. Here we cover the basics, including who, what, where, when.

Better Workplace Systems: how to implement them

This article takes you through some effective ways of making sure that your workplace systems are in order.

Injury Management: how to create your policy

An injury management policy provides broad guidelines on the company’s approach to injury management. It provides clear procedures, and lays out the foundation for dealing with injuries in the...

Template Injury Management Policy

Are injury management policies a mystery to you? This template should help.

Exploring Injury Reporting Systems

Early reporting can have a huge impact on RTW outcomes, so the system used should be well-suited to the purpose.

RTW Systems - How does your workplace stack-up?

Developing effective workplace systems can be challenging. It can also be difficult to know if they are working.

Case Study: Back to the Future

Ms P is a 59 year old woman who reported back problems as a result of her long term employment as a manager in a busy office environment. She is being assessed for whether her back problem is...

Case Study: I Told Them but They Didn't Listen

Ms L is a right handed 46 year old who was employed for ten years to pack domestic cleaning chemicals. She was exposed to these chemicals in dust form.

Role Summary: Psychologist

Psychology is the study of the mind and associated behaviours. A psychologist's focus may be on either individuals or groups.

How to get the best out of your physiotherapist

Physiotherapy treatment is common for a range of standard conditions, particularly including musculoskeletal injuries.

What is an IME?

IME stands for Independent Medical Examination. They are used for a variety of reasons, depending on the situation.

Role Summary: Return to Work Coordinator

Effective RTW coordinators play a vital role in injury management and prevention. It's neither a small role nor an easy one, and RTW co-ordinators shouldn't attempt to do it all.

When you suspect an employee

Joe Unreliable and Jane Dodge have lodged claims for workers' compensation. How should you respond?

Role Summary: Rehabilitation Providers

Rehabilitation providers are multidisciplinary organisations which employ professionals from a range of health disciplines.

Role Summary: Treaters

The term, 'treaters' includes general practitioners, medical specialists and allied health professionals who provide medical assistance to ill or injured workers.

Role Summary: Exercise Physiologist

Exercise Physiologists are Allied Health professionals who focus on therapeutic physical exercise. They use exercise as medicine.

Role Summary: Supervisors

While the employee has the greatest influence over return to work outcomes, supervisor input is not far behind. Supervisors can make an enormous difference to the success of an employee’s return...

Role Summary: Senior Management

Senior management provides leadership for the team and sets the tone for the rest of the organisation.

Role Summary: Families

Families and friends play a vital part in the recovery of injured workers. They provide emotional support as well as physical assistance.

Role Summary: Co-workers

An injured individual who feels supported and confident with work colleagues has a better return to work outcome. This is a fact.

Fanol Isai: RTW in Aged Care

Fanol Isai from Catholic Homes won the “Return to Work Coordinator Excellence” WorkSafe Victoria award in 2014.

Jane Braddy: RTW in Home and Aged Care

According to WorkSafe Victoria, workers in residential care, including aged care, have a higher than average chance of being injured at work.

Aged Care Homes: a cross-generational solution

An aged care facility in Deventer in the Netherlands has found a creative solution to the ‘intergenerational problem.’