Dear Claims Adjuster - Part 3

Saturday, September 24, 2005 | 0

Dear Claims Adjuster,

A claims adjuster that I've known for years made a comment at a recent graduation we both attended. As one young graduate performed some nutty antics in front of the huge crowd, the friend leaned over and said:

"I know what that kid will be someday."

"What?" I asked.

"QIW" he said.

I didn't think it was funny, but he clearly did. You and I both know of the negative stereotyping that goes on among some of you and your colleagues.

In Part II of this series, we discussed how the roles that we assume - both willingly and unwillingly - affect our thinking and our behavior as illustrated in the famous Stanford Prison Experiment. Let's turn, for the moment, to what happens to anyone who experiences too many life changes in a given year.

According to social psychologists (Holmes & Rahe, 1967), both positive and negative changes that occur within a year can rack up stress points. Too many stress points gives a person a much higher chance of developing an illness. This "Stress Scale" includes 41 items with decreasing point values, with the death of a spouse being the highest stressor.

Looking at this scale, we find that many of the top-rated life stress events apply to injured workers. For example, a "Major Personal Injury or Illness" gives you 53 points. Add to that some common problems for injured workers that can include:

Divorce (73 points)
Marital Separation (65 points)
Fired from Work (47 points)
Sex Difficulties (39 points)
Major Change in Financial State (38 points)
Change to Different Line of Work (36 points)
Foreclosure of Mortgage or Loan (30 points)
Spouse Begins or Stops Work (26 points)
Major Change in Living Conditions (25 points)
Trouble with Boss (23 points)
Major Change in Sleeping Habits (16 points)

Their research suggests that a score of 150 points gives you a 50/50 chance of developing an illness. It is easy to see that a significant injury or illness that changes your life puts you well on the way to racking up the stress points! Subsequent research suggests that Holmes & Rahe were correct, although more current theory focuses on the "hassles" of life - those little things that build up and frustrate your progress - as major contributors to stress.

Looking at life from an injured workers' point of view, let's see how life has changed for them:

1. An illness or injury leads to an inability to work, at least temporarily if not permanently.
2. The injured worker is likely familiar with the negative stereotyping and is defensive that they are "not like those other people - my injury is real!"
3. The injured worker now has little to no say in the kind of medical treatment that her or she gets. More often, a doctor who has never seen them dictates what is, or is not, approved for treatment.
4. Delays build, increasing the possibility of severe financial problems including loss of home, loss of savings, and loss of car.
5. Stress builds up as these workers are have less and less control over their lives, thus hindering recovery.

What resources are there to help these folks? Hmmm. Vocational rehabilitation counseling was eliminated in 2003, so there's no "early identification" discussion of their options by trained counselors. Psychological services are routinely denied as compensable sequelae to the industrial injury. Information & Assistance officers are not advocates. Worker's attorneys are at the WCAB 5 days per week fighting all kinds of issues, thus with even less time to speak to their clients. And you can't talk to them if they are represented and if they aren't, the delays will likely be sending them to a lawyer sooner rather than later because it's pretty tough to explain to an injured worker that he can't have an MRI when his doctor thinks it's a good idea.

So, the next time an injured worker gets irate over something, remember the stress scale.

Last Installment- What you CAN do to help and how good you just might feel as a result.

Sincerely,
Peggy Sugarman, Executive Director
VotersInjuredatWork.org

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