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Victorian Workers’ Compensation System – Independent Review
Would have been great if all injured workers labelled as 'complex cases' were notified of this survey participation call. Thank you to my twitter sister, Everyday AUSSIE @GalGeelong for letting me know. Overview The Minister for Workplace Safety, the Hon. Jill Hennessy, has appointed Mr Peter Rozen QC to review the agent model in managing complex Workers’ Compensation claims. The Review responds to recommendation 1 of the Victorian Ombudsman’s 2019 Report ‘WorkSafe 2: Follow up investigation into the management of complex workers compensation claims’. The Review will consider if the agent model is suitable, adequate and effective in the management and [...]
Don’t Go There Soula
I'm closing the door on the 'reasoning rooms' and I'm not going to investigate what might have caused a sudden flare. 'Soula, let's not go there. Don't enter that routine. Don't walk towards the dead end. Don't waste your time... again!' 'You've wasted years, Soula. Over a decade in fact thinking in rooms that provided no answers. They are mostly empty – blank walls, no windows, no air to breath!'
Drug Interactions Checker
Drug Interactions Checker This is a great resource for anyone taking medications. Perhaps if I had this during my medication experimentation phase, I wouldn't have felt so confused about my symptoms. All you need to do is grab your list of meds (or recommendations) and start typing on the drug list page. A list of suggestions will drop down which will allow you to select the best match to your medication enquiry. Add multiple medications to repeat the process. Once your list is complete, you can check for interactions immediately or save your list for future reference. No, the [...]
My Lyrica Closure
Life's pace is vastly slower if you are living with chronic pain. Anticipated outcomes from things like new treatments, explanations about causes of pain, pain research, realisations about personal ideas relating to my own experience all take months, years and even over a decade to arrive. Yesterday was the day I finally received some closure about the wicked Lyrica. There's been a build-up of medication reporting this past year but none of it hit the spot like The Project's report. I love the reporting on this show – it's one of the few programs that brings me to the TV. While watching last night, I got that bullseye feeling: I'm not crazy! How often does a person living with pain come to this blissful realisation? Not often enough I can tell you.
Life’s Changed
Not knowing what's ahead is a familiar nightmare for people living with chronic illness and injured workers and their families. This lived experience has been misunderstood. This lack of empathy could not have been understood without the personal experience of something like COVID-19 – something impacting the world. Even Governments may just get a glimpse of looking down at their feet and feeling the ground below them is trembling. Being unable to make plans and left dangling, waiting to hear about a way forward – whether you can resume work or even have a job (or business) is excruciating. Add a long-term health issue to that equation and the world begins to fall in on you. You can't help but ask, 'will I get through this?'
Australia’s Annual Overdose Report 2020
When I presented at the Royal College of General Practitioners Dealing With Addiction Conference in 2018 (GPADD18) I was astounded to learn the stats on overdoses. I was horrified to learn that the majority of road accidents and deaths are not from people who consume substances such as alcohol and recreational drugs (as the media implies). Rather, people dependant on opioids are the ones dying accidentally and causing road accidents. We need to judge less, help more and live and learn far more swiftly. The next report no doubt will record the increase in suicides and those people [...]