If you’ve been injured at work, you may be facing a a two-pronged challenge – the physical and mental challenge associated with accepting your injury and focusing on the rehabilitation journey ahead, and the challenge of navigating a WorkCover QLD claim for the very first time.

It’s important to know what the treatment journey entails, and how to optimise this from the out-set. If you’ve suffered a muscle, bone or joint injury, your care team should include an Exercise Physiologist.

 

Exercise Physiology and your WorkCover claim

As Exercise Physiologists we are an important piece of your return-to-work puzzle (click here to read our blog titled How an Exercise Physiologist can Improve Your Post-Surgery Rehabilitation). Our treatment can be added following an initial out of Physiotherapy, or even whilst you’re seeing a Physiotherapist to compliment their interventions. You might see a Physiotherapist during what’s called the acute phase of your injury – their role during this period is to help determine the extent of your injury, and help facilitate the early rehabilitation stages by controlling inflammation and pain. They may provide manual therapies and gentle mobilisation work to promote localised healing.

Providing progress is made during the acute phase, your recovery will transition into the sub-acute phase. Sub-acute care is care provided for individuals who generally have a more stable condition but who require ongoing medical support. The focus of this period is to provide support and guidance to develop optimal function – this will be different for each individual and your required job roles and activities of daily living (ADLs).

 

Our specific skill-sets as Exercise Physiologists lie in the following five key areas:

1. Due to our extensive knowledge of human anatomy and physiology and injury management, we assist you to achieve a more efficient (and timely) recovery to enable return to work. Quicker recovery time = win win, most importantly for you but also for your WorkCover injury management team!

2. We can act as a conduit between initial Physiotherapy treatment and being left to independently self-manage injuries. We will help you best navigate the next stage of your treatment should initial Physiotherapy treatment go according to plan. This saves you being left to figure out the next stages of treatment (sub-acute and remodelling phases of healing) on your own.

3. We understand the WorkCover process. This includes how to communicate with your WorkCover QLD Case Manager and your team of fellow medical and health professionals. We adopt a collaborative approach with your treatment team to ensure your rehabilitation goes as smoothly as possible to give you the best prospect of returning to work and normal life.

4. Having worked with over 70 WorkCover patients, we understand that workplace injuries and the recovery process can be stressful. Our job is to guide you towards recovery by understanding more on your injury and how to best recover.

5. Our treatment will help you to build resilience and strength to become stronger and prevent re-injury. Our goal is to in-fact discharge you in a stronger and more capable state than you were prior to your injury to better overcome work-based (and life’s) challenges!

 

Patient Success Stories

“After my knee surgery I had weakness in my leg and supporting muscles due to extended rest and recovery. Training with an Exercise Physiologist has got me back to normal life activities without risk of injury. I would not be back to my regular activities without it. I recommended the idea to my surgeon and he was happy to support it.”

Paula, 51

“Luke has been my Exercise Physiologist due to a complex workplace injury. I saw numerous other exercise physiologists, physiotherapists and occupational therapists prior to Luke, but none come anywhere near matching his level of reliability, good communication, and patient care. Thank you Luke and the Restart team.”

Tim, 44

 

 

It’s important to feel informed as you embark on your rehabilitation plan with WorkCover. This will help to best optimise your treatment and ensure the right professionals are engaged at the right time. We advise utilising the expertise of an Exercise Physiologist as part of this process in the case of most (if not all) muscle, bone or joint injuries.

If you have been recently injured at work, it’s important for the five reasons stated above that an Exercise Physiologist be added to your care team. Discuss our services and iterate this request with your Orthopaedic Specialist team, Physiotherapist, and WorkCover QLD Case Manager.

Call our team on 1300 899 757 should you have any specific queries on the above. If you have a current WorkCover claim and want to use Restart as your Exercise Physiology provider, we have capacity to assist and can have conversations with your existing care team to make this happen.

Luke