identify and overcome these issues and provide the
best possible support to each client.
The first point to consider is that all the barriers
identified in this study are modifiable, which undou-
btedly gives room for further action and improvement.
A further action plan is likely to be developed based on
current gaps, whereas modifiable barriers may serve as
the foundation to inform decision-making for interven-
tions aimed at improving recovery outcomes. This will
be of great value to recovery management planners,
rehabilitation professionals, and affected individuals.
Subsequently developed interventions should focus
on improving relationship and communication with
an ultimate focus on improving recovery outcomes
for clients. The most recent research conducted in
an injured occupational cohort in 2015, emphasized
the importance of the good relationship between the
injured clients, case/rehabilitation managers and the
healthcare professionals and recommended that good
relationship can be achieved only if a person-centred
care approach is adopted and followed (29).
This study supports the view of including person-
centred care as a foundation for building interventions
for improved recovery. A person-centred care ap-
proach involves working in partnership with people to
understand their unique needs and concerns. Tailoring
strategies to these needs leads to more effective and
satisfying health outcomes (30). We suggest that a
person-centred care approach be used to plan, manage
and coordinate clients’ recovery in compensation prac-
tices. This means that some of the current processes and
activities may need to be focused and tailored based on
clients’ experience and needs. A proactive communica-
tion with clients and other stakeholders, such as healt-
hcare practitioners is recommended, to ensure consis-
tency and transparency. In addition, a biopsychosocial
approach is highly needed to understand psychosocial
impact alongside biological factors (31). However,
more research is needed in order to understand how ex-
actly the aforementioned person-centred interventions
may overcome the identified issues and it is currently
underway. Besides that, future efforts should be directed
towards exploring how prevalent these issues are among
a wider cohort of traffic accident claimants and how
to identify them as early as possible so that adequate
support can be provided on time. Thus, one problem
and massive challenge is the lack of recovery tools that
measure the aforementioned issues. It may be possible
to consider the development of a new targeted survey
in which clients could be asked about barriers to servi-
ces, system navigation and their unmet needs. Hence,
125
further research on current tools and gaps in measuring
recovery is needed and highly recommended.
This qualitative study provides in-depth understan-
ding of the perceptions of clients with a minor injury
and protracted recovery navigating the compensation
system. Even though this was extensive in-depth
qualitative study with well-designed and rigorous
methodology, there are limitations. The study repre-
sents the views of the clients and does not provide an
opportunity for the compensation provider to respond
and provide clarifications from their practice. Also, the
initial methodology was to compare barriers and facili-
tators of recovery, which was not achievable due to the
small number of clients who have fully recovered. This
is probably due to the lack of sensitivity of the LBoT
tool, which was unable to capture certain degrees of
functional or psychological aspects of recovery. Given
this lack of sensitivity, further research is required and
these investigations are currently underway. In addi-
tion, this study was not intended to be generalizable;
yet it is representative of client experiences navigating
compensation systems. The findings of this study
are hypothesis generating of key themes, which will
require further examination in quantitative studies to
determine generalizability.
Conclusion
Understanding modifiable barriers to recovery in com-
pensation systems presents opportunities to amend cur-
rent practices and consider a holistic, person-centred
care approach. It is apparent that an improved recovery
management, communication and adequate provision
of guidelines are needed to meet clients’ needs and
facilitate better outcomes. In addition, understanding
clients’ experiences and using this information to
work in partnership with them may facilitate the de-
velopment of innovative, person-centred strategies to
address unmet need, return clients to health earlier and
reduce the length of the compensation claim.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The authors would like to thank the funders and the Steering
Committee members. The authors gratefully acknowledge the
technical advice and support from the TAC’s representatives.
Finally, we express our gratitude to the individuals who parti-
cipated in the study.
Funding statement: SS, Monash ID 26381494 has received
Capital Markets Cooperative Research Centre (CMCRC) living
allowance scholarship for conducting this study. The funders had
no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision
to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.
Person-centred care after minor transport-related injuries
J Rehabil Med 51, 2019