Presentation 1: Building Confidence Collaborating with Insurers and Third Parties
Psychologists are trained to fiercely protect confidentiality and to centre the human in front of us. These values shape our professional identity, which is why interactions with insurers, employers, and third‑party providers can feel uncomfortable or even at odds with how we see our role. Many practitioners enter these conversations feeling uncertain, underprepared, or overwhelmed, despite their importance in supporting recovery and sustainable return‑to‑work outcomes.
Rehabilitation psychology has shifted rapidly in response to rising psychological injury claims, increasing system complexity, and growing expectations on healthcare providers. At the same time, legislative changes introduced in 2022 have strengthened employers’ responsibilities for psychological health and safety, elevating the role of psychologists within organisational and compensation systems. These developments require us to communicate clearly, collaborate confidently, and navigate competing expectations while maintaining strong professional boundaries.
With psychological injury claims rising and expectations on healthcare providers increasing, there is an urgent need to equip psychologists with the tools to advocate for clients while maintaining strong professional boundaries. This session reframes insurer and third‑party collaboration not as an administrative burden, but as a core capability that enhances clinical impact, strengthens multidisciplinary relationships, and improves outcomes for individuals and organisations.
This presentation provides practical frameworks, communication strategies, and psychologically informed tools to help practitioners feel more confident and effective in insurer‑driven environments. By validating the emotional realities of this work and offering concrete, system‑aligned approaches, the session empowers psychologists to engage in these conversations with clarity, confidence, and a renewed sense of professional identity.
Presented by: Sarah Walsh
Presentation 2: Call to Workers' Compensation - Avoid pitfalls and open/reopen your practice to clients in receipt of workers' compensation
Workers’ compensation is a hugely important pillar of modern industry. It provides a financial safety net to those who do dangerous work and the threat of claims prompt businesses to invest in workplace safety. Psychologists are integral to the recovery of many who become injured at work, both through primary mental injuries (E.g., caused by occupational violence and workplace bullying) and secondary mental injuries to secondary physical injury (I.e., adjustment to loss of function and/or chronic pain). Yet, many psychologists refuse to take clients receiving workers’ compensation, a stance we must assume was preceded by a bad experience.
This session looks at three such experiences:
- Payment issues
- Predicaments caused by misunderstanding workers’ compensation as a path to justice
- Paradoxical client deterioration
Understanding these predicaments is the key to avoiding them, and avoiding them is necessary to ensure that psychologists are able to focus on their clients' presenting issues (and not scheme-related grievances), and that clients are able to focus on their recovery.
This presentation combines literature research on the topics of mental health outcomes in workplace injury compensation, mental health benefits of good work, and meaningful activity as a treatment intervention, with the industry knowledge of a psychologist who spent 8 years on the claims management side of the fence and “crossed over” to the treatment side of the fence in 2023.
Presented by: Chloe Woodcock
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