Projects and partners
Completed Projects
Monitoring the Health and Safety of Victorian Healthcare Workers
Monitoring the Health and Safety of Victorian Healthcare Workers
Our partner: Department of Health and Human Services, State of Victoria, Australia
What is the challenge?
Health care workers are at increased risk of workplace injury compared to workers in other industries. This project aims to understand the extent of occupational injury and illness within the Victorian public health sector, and to develop an evidence-based approach to monitoring and improving workplace health and safety of workers in the sector.
Our approach
A mixed methods study comprising multiple reviews of global research evidence and grey literature, analyses of multiple Victorian health sector occupational health and safety (OHS) datasets, and semi-structured interviews with key informants from Victorian health services. Findings from these were drawn together to inform a proposal for a state-wide OHS monitoring framework for the health sector.
What did the project achieve?
The project produced a proposal for an OHS monitoring framework. The framework includes three major elements, being: (1) centralisation of routine OH&S data collected and held by three state government agencies; (2) analysis of leading and lagging indicators of OHS from within these primary data sources, and (3) periodic reporting back to Health services, DHHSand other stakeholders.
What it means for workers’ health and insurance systems
This multidimensional monitoring framework will assist health services and the state government to identify risks to worker health, monitor changes in health and safety over time, and evaluate the impact of OHS programs.
How we’ll communicate our findings
Findings have been delivered to the DHHS and health services around the state of Victoria through reports and presentations. Several manuscripts will be drafted and submitted in peer-reviewed journals. Results will also be presented at national and international conferences. We will provide ongoing support and assistance to the DHHS as it seeks to implement the framework.
Mapping Systems of Income Support for People with Work Incapacity
Mapping Systems of Income Support for People with Work Incapacity
Our partners: Collaborative partnership led by the Department of Social Services
What is the challenge?
Australia has a complex “system of systems” to support people with injury, illness and disability that affects ability to work. This includes state and commonwealth schemes administered by a diverse array of public and private sector organisations. This project will map the systems used in Australia that support people with illness and injury affecting their ability to work. It will also review current data systems and identify opportunities for improving work and health outcomes.
Our approach
Using a combined approach involving interviews with sector experts and information gleaned from grey literature, we are creating descriptions of the ten major income support systems in Australia. These descriptions will be supported by a visual stock and flow map, which will show the way people more from a healthy working state, through and between the different systems of injury, illness and disability support.
What did the project achieve?
This project will deliver an enhanced understanding of the systems of support in Australia, how they interact, and how that interaction affects people’s health and work capacity. Opportunities for improved service provision and better data capture will be identified.
What it means for worker’s health and insurance systems
Mapping available support systems enables us to better understand the experiences of workers with injury, illness or disability, and identify opportunities to improve participation in work and health.
Read more about Mapping Systems of Income Support for People with Work Incapacity.
National Work Health and Safety Leading Indicator Survey
National Work Health and Safety Leading Indicator Survey
Read more about the National Work Health and Safety Leading Indicator Survey.
Our partners: the Institute for Safety, Compensation and Recovery Research (ISCRR)
What is the challenge?
The social and economic cost of work-related injury and illness are substantial. The incidence of injuries, illnesses and workers compensation claims have been steadily reducing for more than a decade. However, these lagging indicators of work health and safety (WHS) performance are not able to measure exposure to WHS risk factors at the worker or workplace level. The leading indicators study sought to assess the relationship between three validated leading indicator measures and lagging indicators of workplace health and safety, in a large and diverse sample of Australian workers.
Our approach
In this study three leading indicator measures were combined with a series of questions assessing common lagging indicators (such as observed injuries and incidents and time lost from work) into a single, 20 minute questionnaire. This questionnaire was administered via telephone and internet to a sample of more than 1100 Australian workers.
What did the project achieve?
We determined the associations between employee, workplace and job characteristics on three WHS leading indicator measures, assessed the degree of overlap and complementarity of WHS leading indicator measures, and determined the association between scores on WHS leading indicator measures and employee-reported lagging indicator measures.
What it means for worker’s health and insurance systems
WHS regulators, employers, industry bodies, worker representative groups and workers could develop programs, policy, and practices that target specific WHS risk factors in specific groups of workers. The leading indicators measured in this survey may provide a suite of measurement tools that facilitate such approaches.
Read more about the National Work Health and Safety Leading Indicator Survey.
WorkCover Queensland Collaboration – Recovery Blueprint
WorkCover Queensland Collaboration – Recovery Blueprint
Read more about the Recovery Blueprint.
Our partner: WorkCover Queensland
What is the challenge?
When worker’s compensation claims delay people’s return to work or progress to litigation, workers experience poor outcomes and compensation authorities incur huge costs.
Identifying injured workers who may take longer to return to work after injury, or who may pursue litigation, can result in earlier intervention and get Australians back to work faster.
We are working with WorkCover Queensland to develop a tool to help identify these at-risk workers.
Our approach
We are working closely with WorkCover Queensland to understand their claims management environment, their data resources, and to gather input from their stakeholders.
This will be combined with research literature and our expertise in the factors that contribute to a delayed return to work.
What will the project achieve?
This project will deliver a case management tool that helps case managers match the right services to the right person at the right time. The tool will be completed early 2018 with plans to evaluate its impact on outcomes for injured workers to follow.
What it means for worker’s health and insurance systems
By matching the right services to the right person at the right time, we can ensure injured workers recover faster. We can also ensure workers’ compensation groups run more efficiently with increased financial sustainability.
How we’ll communicate our findings
This project will develop:
- A risk factor identification best practice statement
- Summary reports
Read more about the Recovery Blueprint.
PACE Project
PACE project
Our partner: Employers Mutual Limited (EML)
What is the challenge?
When worker’s compensation claims delay people’s return to work, workers experience poor outcomes and cost insurers incur huge sums. This project will develop a tool to identify injured workers who are likely to take longer to return to work, or who will progress to litigation. This tool will enable employers and insurers to get workers back to work after injury.
Our approach:
We worked closely with Employers Mutual Limited (EML), an agent for iCare in NSW, to develop the case (PACE) tool. The PACE tool collects information about risk of poor outcomes in the first two weeks of a claim. The tool then matches injured workers with a case manager based on the worker’s risk profile.
What will the project achieve?
The PACE tool has been applied in an intervention group (collected risk information and received recommended interventions) and a control group (collected risk information only). This will allow us to evaluate the tool’s impact, and determine the tool’s ability to identify workers at risk of poor outcomes. At present we are analysing 500 claims, with the results to be available from January 2018.
What it means for worker’s health and insurance systems:
Identifying workers at risk of delayed return to work enables us to match those workers with appropriate supports. For injured workers this means a faster recovery. For EML this means reduced costs of claim management.
How we’ll communicate our findings:
We presented on our PACE tool at the International Disability Forum on Disability Management in 2016. Preliminary findings will be presented at the upcoming 2017 Injury and Disability Schemes Seminar and the final analysis will be published in peer reviewed journal (to be determined). Summary reports of the project findings will be available in February 2018.
Centre for Research Excellence
Centre for Research Excellence
The National Health and Medical Research Council Centre for Research Excellence in Recovery Following Road Traffic Injuries (CRE-RTI) aims to improve the health outcomes of those with non-hospitalised road traffic crash (RTC) injuries. The health burden created by major injuries (e.g. spinal cord and brain injuries) is widely known, however the health, social and employment impacts associated with mild to moderate injuries is less recognised. Return to work after injury has been found to be beneficial to rehabilitation and recovery. Thus, the focus of this study is to explore the return to work outcomes of those with mild to moderate RTC-related injuries.
Current Projects
Compensation Policy and Return to Work Effectiveness (COMPARE) project
Compensation Policy and Return to Work Effectiveness (COMPARE) project
Read more about the COMPARE Project or visit the COMPARE Project website.
Our partners:
This project is funded by Safe Work Australia and WorkSafe Victoria. The following organisations provide data and advice to support the project:
State Insurance Regulatory Authority of New South Wales, Department of Justice and Attorney-General Queensland, WorkCover WA, ReturnToWorkSA, WorkCover Tasmania, NT WorkSafe, Comcare, Treasury and Economic Development ACT, Australian Council of Trade Unions and the Australian Industry Group.
What is the challenge?
Long periods of time off work after an injury are associated with worse health outcomes, higher costs and lower likelihood of returning to work. The policy and practices of workers compensation systems plays a big role in influencing return to work after injury. However, determining which policies are most effective is difficult. By comparing outcomes between different Australian jurisdictions, In order to create effective future legislation and policies that help people get back to work, we need tools that can help examine policies and determine their effectiveness.
Our approach
We are analysing data from 13 years of the National Dataset of Workers’ Compensation Statistics and the most recent four years of National Return to Work Survey. Using a range of comparative and descriptive analysis techniques, we have identified groups of workers at high risk of injury (for example,first responders to incidents) and have examined the impact of policy settings and policy changes on time lost to work.
What will the project achieve?
- Development of policies that reduce wage compensation costs and ultimately reduce employer insurance premiums
- Identification of at-risk groups, creating opportunity for early intervention
What it means for worker’s health and insurance systems
Policies that promote appropriate and timely return to work improve long-term health outcomes for injured workers. There is a strong body of research suggesting that earlier return to work – even when a person is not 100 per cent recovered from injury – promotes better health. Earlier return to work reduces wage compensation costs. This reduction in cost has a flow-on effect, ultimately lowering scheme payouts and reducing employer insurance premiums.
Communicating our findings
We have communicated findings to the project’s Advisory Group in the form of reports and meetings. For wider audiences, we have published in Open Access peer-review journals (e.g. BMJ Open, BMC Public Health) and presented at international conferences, including the International Symposium on Epidemiology in Occupational Health [EPICOH] in Edinburgh in August 2017 and the Australian Injury Prevention and Safety Promotion Conference [AIPN] in Ballarat in November 2017.
Read more about the COMPARE Project or visit the COMPARE Project website.
Transitions Study
Transitions Study
Our partners
The Transitions Project is funded by the State Insurance Regulatory Authority (SIRA) of New South Wales. The following organisations provide data, advice, and linkage services to support the project:
The Centre for Health Record Linkage (CHeReL), the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW), the New South Wales Department of Health, the Commonwealth Department of Social Services and Department of Human Services, and the Sax Institute.
What is the challenge
In 2012, the New South Wales workers’ compensation scheme introduced a new maximum of five years of income replacement. The first group of workers affected by this policy had their income benefits stopped in December 2017. Some injured workers may have returned to work, though this is uncommon in workers with very long-duration claims. Others may access other sources of income support such as social welfare payments, though these are typically less generous and the transition between benefit schemes can be disruptive.
In Australia there is almost no research on this transition between sources of income support for injured workers. The impact of the New South Wales policy reforms have not been formally assessed. Simply put, we don’t know what happened to the injured workers whose workers’ compensation income payments were ceased.
Our approach
To determine the impact of time-capped income replacement benefits on healthcare and welfare service use, we link several administrative datasets including workers’ compensation, hospital and emergency department appearances, medical services, pharmaceuticals, and social welfare. We compare healthcare and welfare use in the 18 month period after to the introduction of the New South Wales policy reforms in injured workers with time-capped benefits to other injured workers with long-duration claims (+2 years) and to members of the community at large.
What will the project achieve?
By identifying how long-duration benefit cessation affects future welfare access, we will provide much-needed evidence on how common it is for people to transition between sources of income support, and who is more likely to make such transitions. Additionally, analysing healthcare service use will shed a light on the health effects of the New South Wales policy reform
What it means for workers’ health and insurance systems
Time-capped income benefits are now common in Australian workers’ compensation schemes. This project will enable legislators, regulators and others to understand the impact of major policy reform, and to better identify injured workers who will need extra support as they transition out of compensation schemes due to time-capped benefits. The findings may galvanise better communications between systems, as better transitions could improve outcomes and reduce costs.
Communicating our findings
Findings will be published in peer-reviewed journals, and study manuscripts will be archived in Open Access repositories. Findings will be presented at local, national and international forums and via social and general media. Study findings will also be reported to the study funder and regulators of the New South Wales workers’ compensation scheme, SIRA.
Driving Health
Driving Health
Read more about Driving Health.
Visit the new Driving Health site.
Our partners: Linfox Australia Pty Ltd, Transport Workers Union, Centre for Work Health and Safety
What is the challenge?
The transport and storage industry has nearly five times more work-related fatalities than other industries, and twice the national average of serious injury compensation claims. Transport workers are subject to a unique set of health risks in their working environment, including sedentary jobs, long working hours, shift work, isolation, fatigue and sleep deprivation. This study will examine the health and wellbeing of people employed in the transport and logistics industry in Australia.
Our approach
The study will occur in three phases. First we will analyse our unique national work health and safety datasets to produce a comprehensive picture of injury and illness in the transport sector, compare with other industries. Second, we will collect in-depth health and work data from a large sample of truck drivers via surveys and qualitative interviews. Third, we will draw together research findings and sector knowledge to co-design interventions to improve health and wellbeing with workers, employers and government.
What will the project achieve?
The project will develop a detailed understanding of the health state of transport workers as well factors affecting health and work function. Ultimately we aim to design interventions to improve health that can then be trialled in real world implementation studies.
What it means for worker’s health and insurance systems:
The project will identify and develop interventions to improve health, and raise awareness of health risk factors in the sector. Improving the health status of workers will have flow on benefits for the productivity and sustainability of the transport industry, and reduce the costs of healthcare and other supports.
How we’ll communicate our findings:
We will produce reports, presentations and journal articles in the usual way. In addition, throughout the project we will convene workshops, discussions and co-design studios with people involved in the transport sector, to both describe and explain our findings and to co-develop interventions.
Read more about Driving Health.
Injury and Illness in Older Workers in the Healthcare Sector
Injury and Illness in Older Workers in the Healthcare Sector
Our partners:
EML (Employers Mutual Limited)
What is the challenge?
The health and social care sector is a major source of work-related injury and illness, with the number of incidents at work high compared to other industries. Australia has an aging population, with the healthcare workforce one of the most rapidly aging workforces in Australia. On average, older workers take longer periods of time off after a health shock, and if injured at work are more likely to try and fail to return to work with the same employer than younger workers. Older healthcare workers have a much higher rate of compensable injury than younger workers, with nurses experiencing the greatest volume.
The health and well-being of older healthcare workers is the focus of this project, in particular the challenges of retaining injured older workers in the healthcare workforce.
Our approach
This study will be completed across three phases. The first involves a rapid review to identify and characterise existing return to work and stay at work interventions among healthcare workers, focusing on nurses, to increase generalisation and maintenance of the skills required to deliver such interventions.
The second involves analysis of administrative datasets, including workers’ compensation claims data, to characterise the prevalence of both primary and recurrent work-related injury and illness in healthcare workers, focusing on nurses, and determine the factors associated with work, health service use and financial outcomes.
The third phase will utilise the information gathered in the first two phases to develop interventions via in intervention mapping approach. This will occur via a series of workshops to co-design interventions with healthcare workers, insurers, health sector employers, and other stakeholders.
What will the project achieve?
A list of intervention programs likely to be successful in improving work outcomes that have been developed in conjunction with experts, and from information determined in the review and analysis phases.
What does it mean for workers health and insurance systems?
The outcomes of the project will enable improved management of the injury or illness from the employer and insurer perspective, which will lead to better return to work and subsequent health outcomes among the injured or ill workers.
Communicating our findings?
Findings will be communicated directly to EML in report format.
Health Service Use and Return to Work Among Compensated Coal Miners
Health Service Use and Return to Work Among Compensated Coal Miners
Our partners:
Coal Services Health and Safety Trust, Coal Mines Insurance
What is the challenge?
The Coal Mining industry has one of the highest rates of injury or illness to its workers, subsequently resulting in a high workers’ compensation claim rate. Thus, there are significant health impacts to the injured/ill workers, and it can be costly for employers and insurers to replace those workers or support them during their recovery.
Our approach
This study will be completed across stages. The first stage will involve a literature review of epidemiological studies to highlight the injuries and illnesses faced by coal miners. Secondly, an epidemiology study of workers’ compensation data will describe the incidence and nature of injuries specific to the NSW Coal Mining industry. The final stages involve more comprehensive analysis of the recovery trajectories of injured or ill coal miners by analysing their health service use and return to work patterns, and how these are associated with one another.
What will the project achieve?
This project will provide comprehensive insights into the incidence of injury/illness among coal miners, health service use during recovery and return to work pathways. It will also provide recommended policy, institutional and individual options that lead to improved management of work-related injury and illness.
What does it mean for workers health and insurance systems?
This project will provide an improved understanding of both the incidence of injury among coal miners and the health service use and return to work patterns that injured/ill coal miners follow during their recovery. This information will lead to improved strategies for health service delivery and management of work-related injury/illness in the Coal Mining industry by identifying successful return to work pathways. There will be a better understanding of the association between health service use and return to work, which will enable improved case management to support injured/ill workers, leading to better health outcomes for workers and possible financial benefits for insurers and employers.
Communicating our findings?
Findings will be communicated directly with Coal Services Health and Safety Trust and Coal Mines Insurance.
Best Practice Care in Compensated Australian Workers with Low Back Pain
Best Practice Care in Compensated Australian Workers with Low Back Pain
What is the challenge?
Low back pain is the greatest contributor to the global burden of disability, mostly affecting people of working age. There are numerous systems of income support available in Australia, including workers' compensation and private life insurance. There is only limited literature on how care for low back pain is delivered through income support systems, and whether this care is evidence-based.
Our approach
We will use a range of methods in this project. We will firstly review international literature and conduct interviews with experts in the fields of low back pain, income support systems, and healthcare. We will then perform secondary data analysis of national and state workers' compensation datasets. Finally, we will survey Australian primary care clinicians who manage and treat compensable workers with low back pain.
What will the project achieve?
There are three parts to this project: (1) Understand the how, why, and in what contexts income support systems affect healthcare quality and functional capacity of people who are unable to work due to low back pain, (2) construct a profile of low back pain in the various support systems in Australia, and (3) determine whether compensable workers with low back pain receive evidence-based care.
What it means for workers' health and insurance systems
Low back pain presents a significant individual, social, and economic problem. Understanding low back pain and best-practice care in the context of Australian income support systems will benefit both workers and the systems that support them.
How we'll communicate the findings
The results of each part of this project will be published in academic peer-reviewed journals and in a doctoral thesis.