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30 May 2008:
PRACTITIONERS GUIDE - 3rd edition JUNE 2008
BICMA updates the Practitioners Guide to Rehabilitation
The Bodily Injury Claims Management Association has updated its popular guide for claims practitioners (handlers on both sides of the fence) to the practical side of rehabilitation. And it can be downloaded free from BICMA’s website - click on the Practitioner\'s Guide icon above.
It is nearly ten years since the Guide was first published. Much has changed, but not the need to keep up with developments in this highly dynamic field. The latest is the third edition, and, like the previous ones, is designed to help all concerned to apply the principles of the Rehabilitation Code, now also in its third edition.
An essential object of the Code is to establish separate, albeit often intermingling, streams of activity for the two aspects of personal injury claims – 1. Rehabilitation
2. Liability and Damages
The liability and damages area is concerned with the parties’ conflicting interest in the question of damages, if any, payable for injury and loss caused by breach of duty. Guidance for the practitioner on these matters is abundant elsewhere.
The first focus, rehabilitation, is also about the defendant’s potential liability to put the claimant, as far as possible, in the position he or she would have enjoyed but for the accident. But here there is much less scope for conflict – it is concerned with how the parties can collaborate on their shared interest in the achievement of the best physiological, psychological and social outcome for the claimant. In this area there remains a shortage of sound practical help.
In the Practitioners Guide the claim handler finds a straightforward, practical source of information about the Why? When? Who? What? and Cost? aspects of the disciplines most commonly involved in rehabilitating accident victims. It covers Case Management, Immediate Needs Assessment, Emotional and Psychological Care, Physiotherapy, Osteopathy and Chiropractic, Accommodation, Nursing and Care, Mobility, and Vocational.
In addition, appendices to the Guide provide vital information on Care in the Community, Social Security Benefits, Psychological aspects and some of the new tools available to the practitioner today, such as the generic Quality Standards for Rehabilitation Providers, the pilot Mediation Scheme for Rehabilitation issues, and the model Agreement for those wishing to work more effectively within the Code.
The BICMA website also displays Registers for -
- Solicitors and insurers who support the principles of the Code and,
- Rehabilitation providers who are committed to the Quality Standards
Today there is a greatly increased understanding about the ways in which adverse psychological factors can be highly influential, leading to disability outcomes that are disproportionate to the physiological consequences of injury. All the disciplines involved in a case can have an impact on the psychological aspects of rehabilitation. The Guide includes an examination of these inter-relationships in the appendix on emotional and psychological care.
The Guide is a “must read” for all involved in the resolution of personal injury claims.
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