By combining psychology-based skills with traditional pain management approaches healthcare providers can offer their patients a more comprehensive approach to managing pain.

Dr Karen Rodham, Senior Lecturer in Health Psychology at the University of Chichester, cautions against the ‘blame, shame and inflame game’ of self-management.

Melanie Ianssen, Head of Rehabilitation at Australia Post, describes how that organisation adapted the WISE study to improve RTW outcomes for their injured workers.

Melanie Ianssen, Head of Rehabilitation at Australia Post, describes how that organisation adapted the WISE study to improve RTW outcomes for their injured workers. What were the results?

Some science-backed, practical things you can do to help people you work with ‘bounce forward’ from their experience of living with persistent pain.

One of the rewarding things about having a self-managed company can be empowering workers to reach their full potential and creating a workplace where everyone can thrive. A small business owner...

Practical evidence-based tips for dealing with pain-related anxiety, or helping someone else deal with it.

A guide about what drives our behaviour can help people living with long-term conditions and those who support them get started (and stay) on a journey of self-management. It can also help prevent...

There's a new guide for primary care practitioners who work with people with low back pain.

Self-management of long-term pain conditions doesn’t just mean doing things to manage the physical symptoms of the condition. It can also involve other ways to improve overall quality of life —...

A legal expert talks about rights and responsibilities at work if someone has musculoskeletal condition.

For some people with back pain or other musculoskeletal conditions, self-management may mean finding a different job. An occupational rehabilitation consultant sets out 6 steps to successfully...

Safework Australia's new guide helps supervisors in small and medium businesses tread the tricky path of managing RTW for ill or injured workers.

Safework Australia has new guide helps supervisors in small and medium businesses tread the tricky path of managing RTW for ill or injured workers.

A musculoskeletal physiotherapist talks about what pain is, ‘boom and bust behaviour’, activity pacing, making a flare-up plan and other useful self-management tips.

Behaviour change techniques to overcome the challenges of trying to stick to a management plan.

We’ve created a list of the best evidence-based websites and podcasts to help people with chronic pain — and the healthcare practitioners and RTW professional who help them — manage their...

We’ve been discussing the role of physiotherapy in self-management for decades – how much progress have we made?

Catherine Day, Director of Employer Supervision and Return to Work at SIRA, outlines SIRA's work to improve declining RTW rates in NSW

Thousands of workers with long Covid are, and will continue to be, exploring return to work. Dr Dominic Yong, a senior occupational physician with the Victorian Department of Health, provides tips...

When injured workers reflect on their workers' comp claims experience, it's how their claims manager made them feel, not what they told them, that they remember. QBE’s Customer Excellence Program...

Four experts discuss the idea of ‘good work’ and how collaboration can achieve better outcomes for injured workers.

Independent medical examinations are one of many factors in our compensation system that can enhance or impede workers’ recovery and RTW. There are things that case managers can do to swing the...

Independent medical examinations are a healthcare issue that contributes to poorer outcomes for injured workers. What does the research say about how healthcare providers can make a positive...

The Commonwealth Ombudsman’s investigation into Comcare’s management of IMEs addresses reports of unreasonable and unethical behaviour and offers up suggestions for improvement.

An innovative technology-supported model of rehabilitation takes remote therapy to another level. And achieves impressive results for injured workers.

What challenges do RTW Coordinators face? And what training and other needs do they have to do their jobs with confidence?

Telerehabilitation on pain and disability in patients with spine pain achieved more improvement than 'hands-on' treatment.

The new Low Back Pain Clinical Care Standard aims to make sure patients with this common condition get the best outcomes.

Senior management teams can be ‘psychosocial safety climate’ engineers.

In a study, one in 4 workers with long-duration workers compensation claims moved onto Centrelink payments after workers’ compensation benefits stopped — or 1 in 2 if their payments stopped...

A new approach to manage chronic musculoskeletal needs many scheme participants to commit to a ‘paradigm shift’.

Regulators can constructively influence our work injury scheme through encouragement, engagement and skilling up the industry.

Workers get the bad press, but other scheme participants behave in ways that are unethical. This article looks how regulators can constructively influence our work injury scheme through their...

Is the concept of ‘Above all, do no harm’ relevant to our workers compensation schemes?

Three union advocates give us their insights into the factors that can help improve RTW outcomes for workers, particularly those with psychological injuries.

Practical suggestions for how physiotherapists and other healthcare practitioners can provide ‘work focused healthcare’ to help the worker and the workplace.

10 common and unhelpful myths about low back pain, and 10 facts that bust them.

Patients are encouraged to ‘self-manage’ their chronic pain conditions. But there are external and personal factors that will either help or hinder their ability to do this. And healthcare...

RTW practices are a team sport. WorkCover Queensland’s Injury Risk Reduction Initiatives show what can be done when injury scheme players work collaboratively to reduce the barriers to recovery...

In Part 1 we introduced IRRI — WorkCover Queensland’s Injury Risk Reduction Initiatives. In this follow up article we look specifically at some of the projects that target workplace mental health,...

What do we know about how workers access, understand and engage with information about workers compensation, return to work and health literacy? A recent report commissioned by Safe Work Australia...

A ‘recovering interventional spine physiatrist’ makes the case for spine clinicians paying more attention to what patients know and say about their low back pain.

The ‘Principles on the role of the GP in supporting worker participation’ provide guidance to GPs and other work injury scheme participants on how they can work together to support workers’...

Implementing evidence-based interventions to improve how we care for workers is not easy. Are there things we can do in our organisations to create the conditions that support ‘organisational...

In our ongoing quest to find ways to translate research into practice in our work injury schemes, we ask ‘What we can learn from complexity thinking?

General practitioners clearly play a critical role and we ask them to do a lot in a complex environment with multiple stakeholders. What is their experience of the work injury insurance system in...

A partnership between researchers and a workers compensation insurer (WorkCover Queensland) is an example of what can be done when evidence informs practice.

An important policy paper — It pays to care — calls for a conversation about, and action on, how we can work together to improve health and recovery outcomes and reduce the barriers to care for...

The 'It Pays to Care' report calls for change in our work injury schemes, but recognises that change is hard, even when we know what we need to do. One model that looks at ‘organisational...

Our standard pathway of care in injury management leads to low value care and over-investigation, over-diagnosis and over-treatment. Dr Mary Wyatt, Occupational Physician, presents some ideas to...

Tips to help develop a mindset that builds resilience and helps us deal with challenging situations.

There are 11 work-related factors that employers must identify and manage to prevent mental injury and promote safe and mentally healthy workplaces.

How can we better to identify and support workers who are risk of developing secondary psychological conditions, and prevent them from occurring in the first place?

How to help build self-efficacy — tips for supporting a worker who may have lost confidence after being away from work.

We all have 3 basic psychological needs that must be fulfilled if we are to do well and feel good at work. What are they?