Challenge
Sometimes, though physically an employee may no longer be injured, there can be something holding them back. When *Julie, a Careworks telephonic case manager, took a look at *Rafael’s case, that’s exactly what she found. After being injured while working, Rafael filed a claim and eventually met Julie. They worked through the recovery process together and Rafael was making great strides in his progress toward returning to work.
However, once his injuries were healed and Julie was prepared to approve him for a return to full duty, he began to show hesitancies. Julie recognized these as signs of malingering and grew less worried about Rafael’s physical state and more worried about his mental state.
Solution
After recognizing these signs, Julie became concerned that Rafael was holding himself back for reasons that he hadn’t expressed to her. She identified this non-injury barrier to return to work and after thinking about it further, ultimately recommended the engagement of behavioral health solutions.
After ruling out additional pathology, Julie learned that anxiety was causing Rafael’s delay. Julie discussed this with the adjuster on the claim and together, they agreed that a referral to behavioral health was the right choice. Rafael was in agreement, opening up that he too had concerns about his return to work surrounding a situation he was dealing with in his personal life.
Result
Julie referred Rafael and a behavioral health specialist was engaged in the claim. They then learned that he had a sick dog at home who could not be left alone for long periods of time, such as the nine hours he would be gone for work. Because of this, he had been delaying his return, unsure of how to work a full day and make sure nothing bad happened to his dog.
As he continued to talk with the behavioral health specialist, they empowered him to problem solve. This resulted in him contacting a neighbor he was close with and asking them if they could check on his dog during the day. They were more than happy to take this weight off Rafael and agreed to add it to their schedule. Soon after, Rafael was ready and excited to make his return to full duty work.
*Names changed for privacy purposes