Rehabilitation and Return to Work

Contact: DEECD
Website Created on: July 21, 2006
Page Last Updated: October 8, 2009

The goal of rehabilitation is to help return injured employees back to safe and sustainable work as quickly as possible.

To help ensure that Department’s employees receive the most effective injury management support, employees who require rehabilitation support, should be referred to an Occupational Rehabilitation Provider (ORP) at the earliest opportunity.

A referral should generally be made to a rehabilitation provider:

if the employee has been absent from work for ten days or more because of a work related injury or illness
if the employee is currently suffering from a work related stress condition, back injury or voice loss condition
if there are other issues which may be an impediment to the employee’s return to work.

In these instances an early referral should be made, even if the employee’s WorkCover claim has not yet been submitted to CGU Workers Compensation.

The rehabilitation provider’s early involvement and assessment will help ensure that:

appropriate rehabilitation support is provided for the employee at the most critical stage of the injury recovery process
planning can commence for any workplace modifications or adjustments that may be required to assist the employee’s return to work.

If you are uncertain whether an early rehabilitation referral is appropriate, you can call the Department’s WorkCover Advisory Service on 9637 2441 or CGU Workers Compensation (Vic) Ltd on 8630 1986.

For further details refer to the WorkCover Management Kit (PDF - 584Kb) and the WorkCover Policy Guide (PDF - 253Kb).