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RESEARCH: What Australia Can Teach the UK About Workplace Rehab · The SOM Podcast

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  Speaker 1: This podcast is sponsored by Orchid Live. Hi and welcome
• 0:18
  to the SOM podcast. I'm Steve Randall. Whatever job we do,
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  there are times when we think, I wonder what it
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  would be like doing this somewhere else. My guest today
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  had that thought and has undertaken some research to find
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  out with some interesting takeaways for us here in the UK.
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  Speaker 2: Hi, I am Cathy Roberts. I'm an occupational health physiotherapist,
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  and I have been basically moving my career trajectory towards
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  becoming a clinical academic. So I was successful in applying
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  for the Society of Occupational Medicine's Jubilee Travel Fellowship, which
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  enabled me to actually go over to Australia and undertake
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  this benchmarking research study to compare occupational health physiotherapy in
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  the UK against our Australian counterparts. This research was supported
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  by the University of Exeter with my supervisors, Dr. Leanne
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  Wood and Professor Sarah Dane, who really supported my research
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  study and really helped me gain the ethical approval as
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  well through the University of Exeter. So thank you to them.
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  Speaker 1: Wow, what an amazing opportunity and amazing insights that you've
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  managed to create from that. So I suppose the big
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  and first question would be, what is the biggest difference
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  between occupational health physiotherapy in Australia compared to the UK?
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  Speaker 2: Okay, so there are some differences. There are also quite
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  a lot of similarities. The opportunities that the physios have
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  in Australia to undertake occupational health practices is far greater
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  in Australia than it is in the UK. And that
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  is possibly due to the differences that they have within
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  their compensation, their workers' compensation scheme, which provides medical care,
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  income support and rehab for people who are injured at work.
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  And this has a strong emphasis on early intervention, collaboration
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  and safe return to work. through these state-based compensation schemes.
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  So that basically provides work opportunities for physiotherapists in Australia
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  that we don't have over here. So they have a
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  greater ability to undertake occupational health physiotherapy. In the UK,
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  most physiotherapists working within occupational health will be paid by
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  the employer which is true for most occupational health services
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  within the UK. So it requires the employer to be
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  forward focused enough to have the services that require occupational
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  health physiotherapy. Within Australia, that is paid for by the insurer.
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  So it's ready-made opportunities for the physiotherapists to find work. Now,
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  in the UK, things are changing and potentially with the
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  development of the WorkWell system within the UK, which will
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  be basically providing opportunities for physiotherapists within occupational health, which
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  will be funded by the government. But this, as you
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  probably know, is a scheme that is developing and progressing.
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  But in the future, it may hopefully provide greater work
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  opportunities for physiotherapists in the UK. And don't forget, in
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  the UK, Individuals that have private healthcare to potentially enable
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  them to receive physiotherapy, that's not necessarily going to be
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  occupational health physiotherapy. We find that in the UK, most
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  physiotherapists are employed through or they gain their work through employers,
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  not through insurance schemes.
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  Speaker 1: So looking at kind of the way that the Australian
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  OH physios work, which parts of the Australian training system
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  do you think the UK could adopt perhaps most easily?
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  Speaker 2: Okay, so what the research has found is that there
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  are shared experiences and shared difficulties with Australia and UK
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  regarding training programmes for occupational health physiotherapists. there was a
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  huge reliance on informal experiential learning, peer support and informal mentorship,
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  as opposed to structured career pathways and training programmes. That
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  was the same problem in both countries. So what is different, however,
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  is the fact that in Australia, they have a titling
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  process for occupational health physiotherapists. So this is a credentialing
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  pathway that that enables physios to develop quite a lengthy
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  portfolio that is then sent off to the Australian Physiotherapy
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  Association and marked, if you like, to show that they
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  have proven their competence in certain areas. And it's quite
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  a rigorous system. We in the UK, we do have
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  something slightly silly. similar, but it's not so developed as
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  it is in Australia. So in the UK, we have ACPO,
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  the Association of Chartered Physiotherapists in Occupational Health and Ergonomics.
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  And we have a technical registration and a registered membership.
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  So there are two tiers of levels within the UK.
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  but it's not quite as robust. It's not quite as
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  developed and rigorous as it is in Australia. We are
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  in need of a modern capability framework that aligns with
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  contemporary practice. And we don't have that in the UK.
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  In fact, they don't have that in Australia either. And
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  the reason why we need a capability framework is that
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  will then help inform the training and career pathways. It
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  will also help with credentialing. It will help with workforce development,
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  and it will also help with professional recognition. And it
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  came from the research in Australia and the UK that
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  perhaps professional recognition isn't where it should be. And that
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  is to employers, it's to other healthcare professionals, but it's
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  also within occupational health. We need to be clearer about
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  what we do, what we can do, and we need
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  to make sure that we have a more robust system
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  to support physiotherapists through a career pathway to become an
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  occupational health physiotherapist.
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  Speaker 1: And what would you say was the most surprising thing
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  you learned from your research at the Australian end, sort
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  of talking to Australian physiotherapists working in OH? What did
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  you find that you perhaps weren't expecting to find?
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  Speaker 2: I think I was expecting more differences than we actually found.
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  So there was a huge overlap between the perceived skills, competencies,
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  capabilities of physiotherapists in both countries. And also what I
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  found really interesting is that talking to the physios, I
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  interviewed 11 expert occupational health physios. from Australia. And it
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  was just like talking to my colleagues in the UK.
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  There was something very similar about the way the physios
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  talked and almost the personalities of the occupational health physios
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  in Australia. And I found that quite interesting. how similar
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  the characters were.
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  Speaker 1: And although this isn't a travelogue type of podcast, you know,
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  we talk about occupational health, it's great to find out
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  what the trip itself was like. Was it the first
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  time you'd been to Australia?
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  Speaker 2: No. So I have two very good physiotherapy friends that
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  I used to live with in Brighton who went to
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  Australia about 25 years ago. So I have been to
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  visit them before, but this was a a wonderful opportunity
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  to go and see them again. One was in Melbourne
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  and the other in Sydney. So from a social perspective,
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  it was wonderful. But also when I was over in Australia,
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  I went to the APA, so that's the Australia Physiotherapy Association.
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  I went to their conference in Adelaide and I went
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  onto the Occupational Health Physiotherapy stream. And that was just
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  amazing opportunity to meet Australian counterparts it really helped with
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  my recruitment I think if I hadn't been there physically
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  in person my recruitment to undertake this research research would
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  have been much more difficult so it opened up this
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  opportunity to speak to them about my research to speak
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  to them about other things as well and just to
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  see you know how they go about things what their
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  what their conference is like um for example um was
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  just a wonderful opportunity.
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  Speaker 1: What an incredible perspective you've been able to gain from
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  this trip. These opportunities come up from time to time. Thankfully,
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  people get the opportunity to apply for these. If somebody
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  sees one come up and they think, should I apply
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  for it? Should I not apply for it? What would
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  you say to them?
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, absolutely. I mean, it was a wonderful opportunity. So
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  to apply for the Jubilee Travel Fellowship, you need to
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  be doing something abroad regarding research. So, you know, go
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  for it. Decide where you want to go or what
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  you want to do and apply. Yeah, I would urge
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  anyone that's interested, it doesn't matter how small that piece
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  of research might be, it will enable you to get
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  your foot in the door, if you like, with some
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  research options. We know it's quite hard to get any
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  funding for research these days. So you know, every penny helps.
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  And if you're like me, somebody who's, you know, moving
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  into a clinical academic role, this research that I've done
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  through the Jubilee Fellowship has sort of enabled me to
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  go on and apply for further research funding. So it's
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  really supported me in my career development. And I'm going
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  on in September to do a PhD. And I think
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  having done this research has helped support me to gain
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  funding to get that PhD. So it's been really pivotal,
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  really important. Big thank you to the staff.
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  Speaker 1: Brilliant. And it's great that we've got plenty more to
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  look forward from you in the future as you develop
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  more pieces of research. But just on this one, where
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  can people find out more about the research that you did?
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  Speaker 2: I'm not sure which journal it's going to be in yet,
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  but there will be links to the report that I've
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  done on the Society of Occupational Medicine website. And I
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  did do a poster presentation for this year's conference. So
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  there'll be an abstract somewhere on the SOMS website. And
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  once I know which publication it's going to, I'll make
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  sure that that's added as well. If people would like
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  to reach out to me, then please find me either
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  on LinkedIn or or via my website, which is katherine
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  at working-health.com. Excellent.
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  Speaker 1: Catherine, it's been great speaking to you. Thanks very much
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  for coming on the SOM podcast.
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  Speaker 2: You're most welcome. Thank you for having me.
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  Speaker 1: This podcast is sponsored by Orchid Live. Orchid Live is
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  a specialist occupational health software used by a number of
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  SOM members to run every aspect of their occupational health operations.
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  They hold healthcare records for over 1 million UK workers
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  and work with both in-house OH teams and OH providers.
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  You can find out more at orchidlive.com.