[hippy]

Hi , i'm a new boy to this site and trust i am posting in the correct area.
I have a new rehab plan which (is full of mistakes) requires me to attend an initial occupational assessment followed by an medical assessment. I've been on Acc for 10 years and am full of arthritis due to previous injuries and can bearly get out of a chair or pick a peg up from the ground.
I am not sure as to how 1/ i should treat the rehab plan( i guess it must be signed) 2/ how co-operative i should be at the occupational assess, ie; what should i confess as having the skills for. 3/ how to handle the medical.
Any assistance from this forum would be worth it's weight in gold, thanks hippy.

[Juscallin1]

Hi Hippy,
Was this Rehab plan done in consultation with your GP????
Does it contain any Rehabilitation,ie any help you need, medical treatment, aids and appliances, home alterations, transport ,or any other things that you require??

It has to be done in consultation with your Doctor and you and the Case Manager. The CM cannot just make out a plan, send it to you and say sign or else.

If your plan only says Voc. Assessment and IMA, then it is illegal and does not meet the requirements of the Act.
In that case, send it back writing over it that " This plan does not meet the requirements of the Act, therefore it is illegal" -
Or, what you can do is write on the plan what you want your self. There are postings on this site, so look up Rehab plans under the Forum to get some idea of what is needed.

It is really important that the correct diagnosis is on the plan, not just "back pain" etc, but a full description of the injury,- all your restrictions like no bending, lifting standing etc. must be there too on the front page.The GP will tell you what to say.

Do not sign anything till you are comfortable with the plan yourself.
They are just putting you thru the exit process by sending you to a toady who will say you can do various jobs, no worries.
Get your plan right now to save a lot of stress to yourself in the future.

When you go in to see the CM, tape a support person and a tape recorder. You are entitled to do this. Do not be coerced into doing something that is beyond your capability.

If your plan is "full of mistakes" then now is your chance to alter it yourself. it is a legal document and once signed you are required to follow it, so are ACC. Case managers just will not do this correctly hoping to get away with it, secure a bonus for a quick and easy exit of a claimant!!!!!

You have 21 days to reply. Do not just ignore it. everyone has to have a plan. Do you already have one, cos it is a living doco and can only be updated, which they are entitled to do.

If you are still undergoing treatment it can be that your condition is not stable and this is covered under the Act as well. Good luck and get back to us for more help if you need it!!!

[accvictim]

Welcome to the site Hippy,

I too have been on the ACC system in excess of 10yrs, and you would not believe what ACC has put me through in that time, so I won`t spell it all out , I would need a month or so to write the book.

ACC over the last 4yrs has become an unfair and unjust corperate money spinner and is not their in any way to help injured people, in fact quite the contrary,ACC will push you to extremes of frustration, thus causing furthur injury and/or illness, and will cause problems and disruption to your entire family, if they have not done so already.

My advice is the same as Justcallin, STICK WITH IT AND DONT LET THE BUGGERS PUSH YOU AROUND,, GET A LAWYER IF YOU HAVE TO.

ACC IS ONLY INTERESTED IN KICKING YOU OFF THE BOOKS, AND PREFERABLY WITHOUT THE EXPENSE OF REHABILITATION.

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[ernie]

The Corporation must provide information to the claimant about—
(a)the rehabilitation to which the claimant may be entitled - Schedule 1, clause 7(1)(a) of the Act.

So ask them to provide this to you in writing. If you subsequently find you may have been entitled to rehab that they did not tell you about, then you will have a right to review the plan. Even if outside the normal 3 month time limit for applying for a review of decision, you can argue that you have extenuating circumstances that allow an out-of-time review because ACC did not tell you about what rehab you may have been entitled to.

Talk to your GP and any specialist you regularly see about what rehab he or she thinks might be appropriate for you. The following persons must be given an opportunity to participate in the preparation and costing of the plan to the extent that they are willing and able to do so:
(a)the claimant:
(b)any . . . medical practitioner providing treatment to the claimant: - Schedule 1, clause 7(3) of the Act. Then ask ACC to agree to whatever they recommend should be in you plan. The onus is on ACC to involve the medical practitioners. If they do not, and everything turns to custard down the track, you again have the right to review the plan and decisions such as vocational independence that may flow from it.

If you have been on ACC for 10 years, it is very likely you will need to be retrained to have any chance of gaining employment in a job that you are medically capable of doing. Talk to the occupational assesor about what you might want to do and what retraining you think might be necessary for you to do it. ACC hate providing genuine retraining for claimants, because it is expensive, so it is important to try to get the occupational assessor to make a strong recommendation regarding this - not just to list some menial jobs that you might have the skills to do. They are required to rehabilitate you to your maximum participation, given your injury, so insist on this. Retraining should not be just a 16 hour computer course that leaves you with no real skills to help you gain emloyment.

If you do not think you can do jobs identified in the IOA for 35 hours a week, make sure you tell the medical assessor this, and the reason you do not think you cannot do them.

After the IMA and IOA, ACC will write up a draft revised plan based on the recommendations. Try to negotiate entitlements that you think you should be getting into it. If ACC do not agree to this, they can deem the plan to be finalised. If you then do not agree with the deemed finalised plan, then apply for a review of it.

Alternatively, you could do what I did and sign a rehab plan know it to be unlawful (my recent one had no medical practitioner involvement, no advice of the right to a support person, was drawn up without an IOA or IMA, no advice of rehab I might be entitled to, and I was given no review rights), knowing that if everything turns to turds down the track, the rehab plan and everything that follows is unlawful and that after a review they would have to start all over again.

But I would suggest you only do this if you are very confident, after taking legal advice, that the plan is actually unlawful.

[hippy]

Thanks justcallin1

* No GP at re-hab plan (up-date), although the CM from Auckland did meet with me in a lower North Island ACC office
* The plan is worded ACC to CONSIDER a referral to the IOA and IMA and not worded WILL REFER, as in original plan.
* I will return the plan, without signing, for mistakes to be corrected first. (and talk to my GP in the meantime.)
* I am not undergoing treatment at present, but my condition is not stable in fact it is getting worse as I have sworn myself off NSAIDS as, although they mask pain, they also destroy further cartilage growth and 10 years was long enough to be on this poison. I have replaced the above medication with glucosomine and condrotin plus a range of other vitamins and supplements which I hope to have benefits from within a year.( this comes at a cost of over $300 per month, but I believe will be well worth the expence. I had immediate improvment in my stomach, no more sick feeling all the time.

Am I doing the right thing here ???? thanks for all the imput posters....

[Juscallin1]

Hi Hippy,

Make sure you say on your plan when you return it,"Not Legal".
All plans MUST contain rehab.
You could try writing in your plan that ACC pay for your new non-drug medications. They probably won't, but it is worth a try and it is part of your rehab.
Have you ever considered Acupuncture? It keeps me off all the drugs if I have it regular, like 2x a week!! (or so)
Keep your chin up and stay firm with this corrupt organisation, you have nothing to lose!!
Cheers

[hippy]

I returned my IRP with corrections to be made before signing ( within the 21 days) but have received back from ACC a date with the IOA guys only. Shouldn't the plan be finalised and signed before I need to run off to some mickey mouse work station ?? Talk about speeding the process up.

[Kiwee]

Hi Hippy
Did they give you a list of names for the IOA or just a date and appointment time with a doctor of their choosing. If that is the case could you post the name address of the doc.
You are right about them pushing it thru fast, especially as they haven't even adknowledged your changes to IRP or put you thru any rehabilitation.
cheers
kiwee

[ernie]

The way I see it, the IOA is an integral part of the development of an individual rehabilitation plan. It, to gether with the IMA, are what ACC are supposed to take into account in determining what vocational rehabilitaiton to provide.

If the IOA, or for that matter the IMA, is flawed, then you should review the rehab plan that is subsequently developed.

If you just let the rehab plan run, then you are likely to be outside the 3 month time limit to review it when by the time your vocational independence assessment is done. You will be considered to have completed the vocational rehab set out in your rehab plan (even though it was based on flawed assessments, and likely exited.

The Weir judgment now provides considerable scope for reviewing rehab plans, not just the entitlements contained in them, so it is important to get your review in at this stage when the IMA or IOA are flawed, not wait for VIAP.

[jocko]

The IOA is an EXIT tool nothing more. ACC never thought these sites would spring up and the truth would be exposed. I ask again, Where are all the claimants who have been successfully rehabilitated through this process?? Why are they not coming on here in their droves calling us liars and telling us how well they have been treated by ACC??????????????????

[Fisher]

Hi Hippy,

You are probably already an ACCLAIM support group member, but if you are out there all by yourself, I suggest that you join ASAP! Good luck my friend and never let the Mongrels get you down!

[hippy]

Recieved my IRP from ACC with mistakes corrected and all the extra inclusions accepted,(which I added,) And signed by my CM and deemed as effective although I have not signed. My IOA is Frid this week but will visit the local support group first, for the first time. Should I be as ignorant and stand-offish as I can at the IOA, do I need to respond with merit or act dumb. I dont need thier help as I dont need a job as I cannot work,in my opinion, and at my age work is a no goer anyway, although ACC dont care off course.

[twostickswalking]

well, you must be seen to comply with acc, or otherwise they will come
down on you like a ton of bricks, you could also ask what information
acc has passed onto the assessor prior to going to the assessor, for example the referral letter.

you could also get a second opinion at the same time, this could be costly to you
intially, but worth it should you need to go to a review.

[greg]

Where in the regulations does it state the minimum reply
time to ACC for an IRP.

[doppelganger]

think that when the ACC sends you to an assessor you write to the assessor with the information that the assessor needs. EG medicals assessments et. A Copy to the case manager stating that they are relavant and must be used.

Time limit or reasonable time can be any length of time. time limit on IRP should be forever as they are only used to pay blites on socity.

A deamed IRP can be reviewed schedule 1 clause 9. Use it or loose it.

[Rasta131]

No weekly compensation ,no rehabilitation , Is that right? My case manager told me.
specialist rehabilitation requests 3 times and GP requested 2 times but nothing happened,because I was not on weekly compensation.