ACC mediation
Today was the ACC mediation appointment. It was an interesting experience…
- Don’t assume that because the representatives of ACC are ringing in for the mediation, that it will be any less stressful than seeing them in the flesh – it won’t be.
- If you’re a mediator for a sensitive claim, DON’T try to reassuringly touch the claimants arm if she is stressed. This will have the side effect of causing the claimant to “freak” and nearly bring the mediation to an early closure (about 10 mins in).
- Ensure that if you are the claimant in an ACC mediation process, that you have a kick arse advocate! We have a kick arse advocate :)
- If you’re the ACC representative, don’t disclose that a request for a full copy of the claimant’s file was not followed – it will annoy her no end and cause a dissociative switch.
- If you’re the ACC representative, DON’T call into question the assessors and peer reviewers credentials – it doesn’t make the process look all that equitable or transparent.
- If you’re the ACC representative, DON’T say that the peer reviewer who slashed the claimants entitlements “wrote the book” on the assessing guidelines – especially when the guidelines are actually written by the American Medical Association… The big clue about this one is on the title page of the guidelines :)
- If you’re a mediator for ACC and are alone in the room with the claimant, don’t talk about your Lemon De-tox diet – she really doesn’t care. Although it was a good attempt at trying to make a hellish situation a little more bearable…
- If you’re the claimant, try not to self-injure while in the middle of mediation. OK so it was only scratching, but it’s not a good look!
- If you’re the mediator, DON’T ask at the end of the mediation if the claimant really works full-time with a rather stunned look on your face – it really made us feel really inadequate that we couldn’t keep it together for the two hour meeting.
Mediation over! We just have to write up our full abuse history, detail why we are such a mess in our daily functioning and try to explain DID as a support function which allows us to work full-time… So… like… yeah… like a piece of cake really!
We then have the prospect of having to do another assessment if they still don’t change their entitlement allocations significantly… Are we having fun yet?
