VICTIM SUPPORT, DISABILITY EQUIPMENT AND ASSESSMENT OF IMPAIRMENT

Victim support, disability equipment and assessment of impairment both physical and psychological, advice, support and mentoring from an accident victim

Assessment of Impairment and Disability.

Expect a detailed assessment of your physical and psychological problems in the report. If you stop and think about it for a moment the Occupational Therapist cannot do the job of writing a report about you and your equipment needs if a detailed examination of your problems has not been done.

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What you should be concerned about however is that the full history of your physical and psychological problems are noted. Withholding pertinent facts along the way will not be to your advantage. Remember these experts are writing these reports regularly and you are only likely to be a passing memory to them once the report has been written and paid for. So if it is wrong tell your solicitor and make sure it is put right.

Draft reports are common. Experts know that in the time they have to write the report, mistakes can be and more often than not are made. It is not uncommon for two or possibly even three drafts to be done before they are correct. The expert will start to complain over the nit picking if that is what it comes to. Be clear in your mind that what you are insisting upon is correct. It is not nit picking to point out inaccuracies in pricing if your research has shown that the expert is several seasons out on a the price of a particular item. Nor is it nit picking to point out a need for a particular large item eg a second car if the first one breaks down and no courtesy car is available for your disability, which is often the case. That particular issue will make large waves! You may not win the whole argument but you may have some success in the alternatives that might be suggested eg a cab allowance.

The detailed assessment will then lead to a section on the implications for daily living. Think about the legal process for a moment. You have a no fault accident, an assessment of your impairment and disabilities follows which is the natural pre cursor for the implications for daily living. An illustration of the stacked dominoes shows if when the last domino falls and was a natural consequence of the first domino falling, then any claim for compensation which is a natural consequence of the accident even if it is a long period of time from the accident should be claimable.

So the implications for daily living might highlight problems in personal care, domestic problems, childcare and social and leisure problems. An expert identifying these problems areas in turn causes the defendant's insurers a legal problem. They are obliged to spend money to sort them out.

Your expert will be watching you at the time of the interview and even before, eg what you say and how you say it on a telephone conversation when arranging the visit.

All your words, actions, emotions and non verbal communication between you and your family and could be open for inclusion in the report.

First hand observation evidence is excellent as it shows you in your new disabled status. Alternatively it could also show that you are coping well with your disability and the report will be downsized accordingly, therefore you should be careful that your true and possibly your non coping condition is shown.

It is common in the human nature to try and show oneself off at one best, this may be detrimental to your long term interests. Take care to demonstrate the real you. It is no use complaining that you are normally depressed day in day out and on the day the Occupational Therapist visits you are the life and soul of the occasion because your case in progressing and you feel happy with that or that you have a visitor and you have not seen anyone for month on end. The Expert will be getting the wrong normal "you."

Transport.

Your pre accident transport situation will be assessed. That will be compared to your post accident needs. The difference between the two scenarios will be the simple method of calculating the transport section of your claim.

Needless to say it is not as simple as that! The level of your injury will have a definite impact on what your needs are. Injuries that are less than catastrophic may still affect your transport needs eg if you suffer from PTSD and are fearful of driving again you may need to have cab fares built in to your claim. Maybe a leg injury has had to have a knee joint pinned so making the joint unable to bend, thus you can walk, just, but driving an unadapted car would now be impossible. The possibilities are endless.

Remember if you have had a catastrophic injury that is a life changing event, what does this mean in relation to your transport needs? Each case will be different because the nature of your injury and personal circumstances will be relevant to your needs. For example as a right legged above knee amputee it could mean changing to an automatic car which has a flip over pedal to operate with your left foot and a hoist facility to get a powerchair into the car and a larger car, and possible a second car at least adapted to your needs.

The size of the new vehicle could also be a consideration for one in order to cart around a 220 pound powerchair and hoist. Also the new vehicle would need to have enough seats to carry a growing family. The medication you are on, may restrict you to short journeys of about one hours duration as you get so tired and have a tendency to close your eyes, so drivers may have to be hired for longer journeys.

This will entail a larger car and possibly a tow bar to be fitted for a trailer to be bought in order to transport everybody's luggage. You can see that this will all be according to your circumstances.

Again in the case Mentor Experiences was involved in decided that an additional second adapted car would be needed. The reason for this was because there is no motor rail facility in this country any more. So on long journeys eg to the north of Scotland the car and driver would be sent ahead and the victim and his family would fly to the destination, thereby leaving them all stranded at home and without the facility to drive locally. A second car was justified, certainly for that particular problem. It must be said that one would require substantially more evidence to enable your lawyers to successfully argue that a second car was needed.

However new cars also break down and need servicing. They also get involved in accidents which then needs repairing. There are countless reasons and one must adapt them to your own circumstances. Mentor Experiences suggest that you sit down and write them down for your own life. So, these examples can be put forward to overcome the undoubted resistance you will come up against for a second adapted car to be bought.

A detailed examination of the arguments your legal team may decide to try and persuade the judge that it was a reasonable request, but you must evidence the need. A deciding argument may be that the Disability Discrimination Act made it lawful for transport systems to be exempt from the DDA provisions. This means that they can lawfully discriminate against you, for the time being, this will change in the future by legislation making Transport providers liable under the DDA provisions. Until then as long as you have an argument and the Occupational Therapist also backs you up then be aware that your reasonable transport needs are claimable.

The report will account for set up costs, running costs and replacement intervals.

These replacement interval times could change from anything from 3 years to 6 years or perhaps more. You must aim to obtain the lowest replacement times. The defendant's Occupational Therapist will no doubt take the minimalistic view and refer you to the Motability scheme.

The Motability Scheme is allied to a claim notably the Disability Living Allowance. To access the scheme one normally needs a 3 year allocation of the higher rate of the mobility section of the allowance.

You do NOT have to rely on this scheme for the provision of adapted vehicles. As it is a government backed and funded scheme there is the possibility that the funding and criteria may change in the future. Should this happen it would be to your detriment and your mobility problems will not be catered for. Consequently privately funded solutions are far better for someone that has a civil claim certainly to ensure that future transport funding is available to you.

So what can you expect from an occupational health report.