Agenda - Day Two

Day One | Day Two

CONFERENCE DAY ONE: Tuesday 21 February 2012

8:00 Registration and refreshments

8:30 Speed networking session

8:45 Opening remarks from the Chair

9.00 The role of a medical practitioner in workers' compensation process

• Motivating medical personnel to engage in system improvement
• Effectively engaging with healthcare professionals to improve the claims process and health outcomes for injured workers
• Medical practitioners and insurers working together in encouraging workers to return to work sooner
• Managing evident and non-evidentiary claims eg. Unseen injury that takes place at work

Dr Gary Speck, The Australian Medical Association Victoria Ltd

9.30 International keynote: The linkages between occupational safety and health and workers’ compensation in the US: Perspective from OSHA

> Health and safety and workers' compensation go together. WC should not only finance medical care and lost wages for injured workers, but also be an incentive for prevention
> Workers' compensation data is useful in targeting inspections
> Collaboration between OSHA and WC is limited. No minimum federal standards assure full coverage, adequate benefits, or provision of medical care
> Significant occupational injuries costs are not covered by workers’ compensation; taxpayer funded benefit programs and injured workers subsidize unsafe workplaces
> OSHA now identifies the insurers of employers penalized for not abating egregious hazards. Insurers should help employers understand and follow rules and good practices

Dr David Michaels, Assistant Secretary of Labor, Occupational Safety and Health Administration - OSHA, Department of Labor, Washington DC, USA

10.00 Pre-employment medical assessments: A good investment or a rubber stamp?

• Where's the value in a pre-employment medical?
• Is a pre-employment medical just a rubber stamp? How can you tell?
• What questions can a pre-employment answer? What can’t be answered?
• Are functional capacity tests relevant in the preemployment setting?
• The inclusion of a drug and alcohol test as part of a pre-employment medical to ensure levels or tolerances and what is deemed as acceptable by the employer

Dr David Milecki, Medical Director, InjuryNET Australia

10.30 Morning tea

10.45 Managing a mature workforce: The investment and returns for business

• "In the next decade workers aged 15 - 44 years will account for only 15% of labour market growth", Ref: Australian Industry Group
• Does your organisation have a blind spot in the management of your workforce?
• Find out how and why other organisations are preparing for their future workforce and what they are doing to recruit, retain and manage mature workers

Wayne Bishop, Director, Activetics

11.15 The ageing workforce and its impact on workers' compensation

• Examining the key drivers of workers’ compensation claims costs according to age
• How organisations can treat an ageing population and an increasing national retirement age as an opportunity by implementing the work ability concept – Real time early intervention
• How self managing workers’ compensation can lead to bottom line savings through decreased premium costs, reinvested into managing a mature workforce ensuring workers’ compensation costs remain low and staff welfare remains high

Paul Marsh, Principal, P2 Group

11.45 Panel discussion: Are work health & safety and workers' compensation part of a single cycle?

> How should work health & safety and workers' compensation interact at the enterprise level?
> Can safer work environments improve RTW rates for injured workers?
> Addressing psychological injury in the workplace - Is 'compensability' the hidden problem?
> Can leadership really assist in reducing workplace injury?

Panelists:
Graham Dent, Principal, Dent Consulting & Legal
Robin Shaw, Manager, Self Insurers of South Australia Inc, Chair, National Council of Self Insurers Inc
Rosemary McKenzie-Ferguson, Founder, Work Injured Resource Connection, "Bags of Love" emergency food project, Advantage SA Community Leader 2011
Derrick McManus, Inspirational Speaker, Educator, Sergeant, SA Police
Tony Stante, Alliance Project Manager, Ballina Bypass Alliance
Jarrod Moran, Senior OHS/Workers Compensation Officer, ACTU

12.30 Networking lunch

1.30 Challenging safety issues of synthetic drugs in the workplace

• Why synthetic-cannabis products should be avoided - Whilst they do not contain the main psychoactive compound of regular cannabis (THC), they can be much stronger, creating impairments, including slowed reflexes, hallucinations, anxiety and depression
• Reviewing current drug and alcohol requirements regardless of regulatory requirements and make any necessary changes in consultation with workers' and OHS representatives
• Raising awareness of the risks associated with legal drug use with their workforce in order to challenge the perception employees may have that because it is legal, it is not harmful or dangerous

Dan Trindade, Partner, Clayton Utz

2.00 Disability employment

• What are the benefits of increasing the employment opportunities for people with disability?
• What assistance is available to employers to employ people with disability (including workplace modifications, wage subsidies, specialist employment services)?
• What else could be done to enable more people with disability to work?

Ken Baker, Chief Executive, National Disability Services

2.30 CASE STUDY: Rhys Baxter - Seeing through the eyes of an injured worker

> The moment of a life-changing spinal injury - How the split second decisions of our actions can leave such a huge impact on not only our own lives, but the lives of everyone you know, friends, family, colleagues, and even people you don't know personally in your community
> The loss of independence and how the struggle to build that independence back up, gives someone a huge appreciation for what they have lost
> Learning to live again after injury - What is learnt the hard way and what is crucial to getting back on track and back to work

Peter Perry, CEO & Rhys Baxter, Ambassador, Spinal Cord Injuries Australia

3.00 Afternoon tea

STREAM A: WHS & WELFARE

3.15 CASE STUDY: Delivering on safety excellence in a challenging environment. Building a strong safety culture through award winning systems:

> Applying consistent leadership practices at all levels on the team
> Delivering effective training and mentoring through a coordinated targeted program
> Maintaining a "one team" focus through a robust safety communication plan
> Striving for continuous improvement supported by a high performance culture
> Gaining and utilising the best knowledge available through constant collaboration with all stakeholders
> Encouraging a "can do" attitude promoting the application of safety innovation coming especially from the coal face

Tony Stante, Alliance Project Manager, Ballina Bypass Alliance

3.45 The Victorian Experience - Safety, service, sustainability

• An overview of Victoria's safety statistics
• How and why WorkSafe measure service and sustainability
• WorkSafe 2012 and beyond - what next for health and safely prevention and support and service to injured worker

Ian Forsyth, Deputy Chief Executive, Executive Director Health and Safety, WorkSafe Victoria WorkSafe Victoria

4.15 Harnessing a cutting edge health and safety culture

• How the new Health Foundation will play an integral role in improving health and wellbeing of staff, enabling them to lead a long productive and balanced life

STREAM B: PHYSICAL INJURY MANAGEMENT

3.15 Chronic pain management: Managing epidemic

• This presentation is about a particular and novel kind of therapeutic education where patients are taught neuroscience in order to facilitate critical conceptual changes in chronic pain and disability management. For example, that pain no longer equates to damage but is more related to perceptions of damage which include an array of identifiable threats

3.45 CASE STUDY: Return to work: Focussing on the big picture

> Early intervention - The first positive step on the road to recovery
> Positive relationships and how they assist with successful return to work
> How psychological and social issues impact on the physical injury
> Employee health initiatives at Eldercare

Christine Pelvin, Injury and Claims Consultant, Eldercare

4.15 CASE STUDY: What it takes to make a difference in injury management

> It's all about communicationcommunicate early and communicate regularly
> I hear you - Taking the time to listen
> More than words - Taking the time to notice the other signals
> It's like being an orchestra conductor - Managing all the players
> Being brave - Sometimes you have to try something different

Joanne Rielly, Case and Injury Manager Courts Administration Authority

STREAM C: REHABILITATION AND RETURN TO WORK

3.15 Return-to-work or stay-at-work

• The disconnect from work
• Observing the effects of immediate intervention- Collaborative efforts to reducing the risk of lost time injury severity rate and fast-track RTW outcomes
• Addressing potential hurdles that impact the RTW process

Nikki Brouwers, President of Australian Rehab Provider Association NSW

3.45 CASE STUDY: Six weeks!

> The history of Work Injured Resource Connection Inc
> What the wider industry need to learn just from listening and taking on board the lessons of injured workers
> What industry training does NOT offer providers to be able to understand just what injured workers face as well as what can be put in place to help industry providers understand on an empathic level for a better outcome for all concerned

Rosemary McKenzie-Ferguson Founder, Work Injured Resource Connection, "Bags of Love" emergency food project, Advantage SA Community Leader 2011

4.15 CASE STUDY: From injured to inspirational - Shot 14 times with a high-powered rifle ... and still laughing

A gripping insight into:

> How psychological contingency planning saves lives, aids recovery, accelerates rehabilitation and reduces claims
> There's a massive difference between injury, disablement and disability
> Living example of the "can do" attitude, innovative problem solving and how you create it
> Five drivers for building confidence, courage and capacity in your workforce
> Six simple steps to increasing the resilience of your workers

Joanne Rielly, Case and Injury Manager Courts Administration Authority

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