On Tuesday 1 August 2023, there were cheers across the WorkFocus ACT office and nationally, as the ARPA ACT Excellence in Workplace Rehabilitation Awards 2023 finalists were announced.
Across the seven, highly competitive, award categories the ACT team had finalists in five of the awards, demonstrating the extraordinary skills and quality of the team’s rehabilitation and return to work services.
Our finalists
Hannah Hebdon, Senior Rehabilitation Consultant
Outstanding Consultant Award – Same Employer
Hannah is recognised for her critical, effective problem-solving skills and for her ‘outside the box’ solutions to enable clients to return to work and better health. Hannah has also established an excellent reputation across all stakeholders as a result of her collaborative, outcome-focused and positive mindset.
Outstanding Achievement in RTW Award – Physical Claim
Hannah is recognised again for her collaborative and problem-solving approach in supporting a specific client with a major injury to achieve a successful return to work. Through close collaboration and education of key stakeholders, and initiating tailored physiotherapy support to the client, Hannah was able to support the client to achieve their return to work goals in a reduced time frame.
Adarsha Dhungel, Rehabilitation Consultant
Outstanding Consultant Award – New Employer
Adarsha is recognised for her commitment to supporting clients in remote locations to find new employment. Adarsha is a quiet achiever who goes above and beyond to assist her clients to ‘get well and working again’. Stakeholders have provided positive feedback on Adarsha’s exceptional vocational assessments skills, highlighting her ability to identify medically appropriate and suitable new employment options for clients, that are aligned with the client’s preferences and ability.
Jenn Ellis, Senior Rehabilitation Consultant
Outstanding Achievement in RTW Award – Psychological Claim
Jenn has established an outstanding reputation in the occupational rehabilitation sector. Jenn has extensive knowledge across multiple schemes and is passionate about the health benefits of good work. Jenn is recognised as a finalist in this award for supporting a client with a psychological injury to return to work, through educating the treating Psychologist on the health benefits of good work, to adapt their treatment, as well as providing exceptional motivational coaching and retraining options to enable the client to find good employment again. Jenn is also highly committed to WorkFocus’ values and is recognised for having the highest standards of service delivery.
Work Capacity Development Program
Innovation in Return to Work Award
WorkFocus’ Work Capacity Development Program (WCDP) was developed by our Occupational Therapy Clinical Excellence team to help clients that currently have no capacity for work, build, demonstrate and achieve medical certification to enable successful rehabilitation, retraining and return to work. The results of this innovative program on a pilot group have been highly successful seeing 100% of clients achieve improved overall wellness and increased capacity.
Speaking on the recognition of the ACT team members, Sashka Crollini, ACT Business Manager said, ‘it’s fantastic to see the hard work of these consultants reflected in the ARPA ACT finalists. Our consultants are at the very core of what WorkFocus is most passionate about, helping people return to their lives and workplace following injury. I’m super proud of the team.’
The ARPA ACT Excellence in Workplace Rehabilitation Awards event will be held on Friday 1 September 2023, at The Marion in Canberra.
