Over my desk every week comes story after story after story that the workers compensation system simply does not want anyone to know about.
Grown men, salt of the earth men, breaking down in tears because they have had to make the choice of paying rent/mortgage and keeping a roof over their children's head or buy groceries to feed their children.
A grandmother in her 90's called.
Her concern was her great-grandchildren would be taken into foster care because her grandson was at risk of not being able to continue to pay the rent.
The dear lady told me she had taken to sending Woolies vouchers to her grandson so he could buy the food needed by his family.
All of it because of a workplace injury.
Nothing breaks a heart harder than listening to a lady who is herself living on an age pension saying how much she is giving up to keep her grandson and his family together.
The man himself telling me that suicide is a real option because his family would get all the support it needs.
Attempted and completed suicides need to be headline news everywhere, the wider public must be made aware of just how toxic and how putrid and how rotten the safety net of workers compensation is.
The urban myth that members of the injured worker community is on a tax payer funded holiday has to be shown and seen for what it is a fabrication.
It is not easy for me to say, but I do know just how fortunate I was to survive 3 suicide attempts due to my own workers compensation claim.
I have stood at far too many suicide funerals, all the while knowing that the very last hope each of them had was for life to be as it should have always been.
Life after a workplace injury is hard enough.
The workers compensation system should never exacerbate the injury.
Over my desk every week comes story after story after story that the workers compensation system simply does not want anyone to know about.
Grown men, salt of the earth men, breaking down in tears because they have had to make the choice of paying rent/mortgage and keeping a roof over their children's head or buy groceries to feed their children.
A grandmother in her 90's called.
Her concern was her great-grandchildren would be taken into foster care because her grandson was at risk of not being able to continue to pay the rent.
The dear lady told me she had taken to sending Woolies vouchers to her grandson so he could buy the food needed by his family.
All of it because of a workplace injury.
Nothing breaks a heart harder than listening to a lady who is herself living on an age pension saying how much she is giving up to keep her grandson and his family together.
The man himself telling me that suicide is a real option because his family would get all the support it needs.
Attempted and completed suicides need to be headline news everywhere, the wider public must be made aware of just how toxic and how putrid and how rotten the safety net of workers compensation is.
The urban myth that members of the injured worker community is on a tax payer funded holiday has to be shown and seen for what it is a fabrication.
It is not easy for me to say, but I do know just how fortunate I was to survive 3 suicide attempts due to my own workers compensation claim.
I have stood at far too many suicide funerals, all the while knowing that the very last hope each of them had was for life to be as it should have always been.
Life after a workplace injury is hard enough.
The workers compensation system should never exacerbate the injury.