As more and more companies and firms deal with worker injuries and searching for ways to have the employee return to their job or career path, it is important to know your rights. One of the most impactful parts about hiring a personal injury attorney is having the peace of mind that you need so you can focus on your rehabilitation. Here are five steps towards getting back to a full recovery.
Developing an Injury Overview
It is key that in order to provide occupational therapy, that an assessment of the injury that occurred be conducted. The level and scope of the injuries will help both the employee, as well as the therapist work jointly to keep the plan focused on recovery. Part of the treatment overview process will include assessing the work that the employee is normally engaged in. If the work was physical and the employee used his back, shoulders, forearms or wrist and hands, then injury overview will determine how and where the primary treatment may be focused on in strengthening those areas.
Developing a Treatment Plan:
The next step for getting the employee back to work is to develop a treatment plan geared to the employee’s level of work and recovery from injuries. The work-focused occupational therapy will be set over a defined period of time which will allow the employee to slowly regain work-related abilities. If there are multiple injuries then an occupational rehab plan may be developed to help rehabilitate the more seriously injured areas first down to the least injured areas.
Undergoing the Treatment Plan
The injured employee’s recovery and return to the job will be based upon more than physical rehabilitation of the injured area. In fact, a number of areas and information will need to be assessed before the employee can return to work following an injury.
Some of these areas the employee will be required to undergo include:
• Work simulations of real work situations
• Testing the worker’s manual abilities for effectiveness and progress
• Employee interviews concerning job tasks and responsibilities
• Actual observing of employee performing tasks in both regular and stressful job situations
• Employee’s questionnaire responses
• Work rating scales to measure reasonable performance abilities as compared to the norm
• Employer interviews are conducted in order to determine if the rehab assessments and findings will meet employee’s normal performance
Post Treatment Assessment
Once the employee has successfully completed, an assessment will be conducted to determine if what intervention and job goals will be set. This is where the employee, as well as the employer will have input into this process along with a physician’s evaluation.
The assessment should be able to determine if there will potentially hinder to the employee’s return to work and what corrective measures are necessary. This could include additional follow up rehab therapy as well as possible job reassignment.
Permission to Return to Work
The last step of the road back to work and recovery is preparing the injured employee with a work on the job post-recovery plan that will allow the worker to ease back into his work routine. This may include continuing rehab techniques in the privacy of the home as well as working on job assignments at home if the employee has a desk job that allows this type of work-related tasks. Before the release to work documents and evaluations are signed the doctor, employer as well as employee must be fully on board about any work limitations.