For the purposes of this website the term Workplace Rehabilitation means Vocational Rehabilitation as stated in the Workers’ Compensation and Injury Management Act 1981.

As WorkCover WA recently became a signatory to the Nationally Consistent Approval Framework for Workplace Rehabilitation Providers (the National Framework) organisations seeking to become a Workplace Rehabilitation Provider will need to demonstrate that they conform to the principles of Workplace Rehabilitation, the Conditions of Approval and the Code of Conduct in accordance with the National Framework.

Workplace Rehabilitation

Providers in the field of workplace rehabilitation have the qualifications, experience and expertise appropriate to provide services in accordance with the following definition:

Workplace rehabilitation is a managed process involving timely intervention with appropriate and adequate services based on assessed need, and which is aimed at maintaining injured or ill employees in, or returning them to, suitable employment.

Providers are engaged to provide specialised expertise in addition to that generally available within the employer and insurer operations.

Providers are engaged for those injured workers where return to work is not straight forward.

Service provision is largely delivered at the workplace by:

• Identifying and designing suitable duties for the injured worker to assist employers to meet their obligations in providing suitable employment to injured workers.
• Identifying and coordinating rehabilitation strategies that ensure workers are able to safely perform their duties.
• Facilitating an early return to work of the worker.
• Forging the link between the insurer, employer and treatment providers to ensure a focus on return to work.
• Arranging appropriate retraining and placement in alternative employment when the worker is unable to return to pre-injury duties.