Jessica's recovery and return to work story

Video transcript

(MUSIC PLAYS)

DESCRIPTION:

On a soft, pale grey background fading gently across the screen, darker grey text reads ‘Jess was riding her motorbike between two work locations when the accident occurred. This is her story of recovery and return to work.’

A black and white video of the oncoming country road. As Jess talks, the video briefly fades to black.

Black and white video of the accident’s aftermath viewed at road-level: the motorbike lays on its side, a car with an open front passenger door in the background. A light on the car’s side mirror blinks on and off intermittently. In the foreground: the motorbike’s smashed side mirror.

JESS:
I was going down a slip road doing 80, and I was hit at 67km from the side…

DESCRIPTION:

Jess sits on a brown leather lounge. A long tress of her pink and purple-dyed hair falls over her face. She wears a dark-grey marle t-shirt with a cartoon of an anthropomorphised speaker wearing headphones over its blown-back yellow hair. Yellow and white text above the speaker reads, ‘Hey Say Yeaaahh!!’ Tattoos run along Jess’s left inner forearm.

TEXT: Jess, OSHC worker.

JESS:
…and I very quickly thought, I'll be back to work in the next six months. I'll be fine. Not really understanding the issues and the injuries that I actually had.

DESCRIPTION:

Jess’ hands tap the keys of a colourfully backlit keyboard as she works on a document at home.

JESS:
It probably took me about a year or so to get back to work, but I've had a very supportive work environment. I've had a very supportive caseworker, and everybody has helped me get back to where I needed to be.

DESCRIPTION:

Julie sits in front of a laptop in a brightly-lit room. Her long, straight blonde hair falls over one shoulder. She wears a chunky, leopard-print jumper, rings and a gold watch.

TEXT: Julie, Return to independence specialist.

JULIE:
We fairly early on identified that Jessie had significant trauma after what she'd been through…

DESCRIPTION:

Photos appear of Jess in hospital as Julie talks.

On the left: Jess’ right leg pinned in a circular frame.

On the right: Jess smiles as she stands next to the bed, her right leg encased in the frame.

JULIE:
…so approved and enabled her to access some psychology services herself. And I also extended those services to her brother and her dad.

DESCRIPTION:

Julie takes down notes during a phone conversation.

JULIE:
I think in the first, at least, 14 months of that claim, I spoke to either one of them every day.

DESCRIPTION:

Julie’s hands tap the computer keyboard.

JULIE:
It was more about being that emotional support for them. A horrible thing had happened to Jessie, to their daughter, and they weren't able to see how life would be beyond that.

JESS:
My claims manager helped me in a lot of ways…

DESCRIPTION:

Julie works at her desk.

JESS:
…and she's helped me get equipment that I need, organise doctor's appointments that are required.

DESCRIPTION:

Jess uses crutches as she walks along a dirt track in a field; a large building in the background.

JESS:
Helped me with getting physio, getting rehab, taking my mind off of financial issues which was a big burden when you don't know what's happening.

DESCRIPTION:

Jess plays in her backyard with a smooth fox terrier with brown markings. She tosses the chew toy. The dog races after it.
Later, Jess sits in her living room watching ‘Survivor’. A large, plush Stitch from ‘Lilo and Stitch’ is propped-up on the adjacent lounge.

JESS:
I've always been a very independent person, so having to rely on a lot of people for things that you normally wouldn't have to rely on people was really difficult. So that was part motivation. Getting back my independence.

DESCRIPTION:

Julie talks as Jess works on her propped-up tablet at the dining table.

JULIE:
Jessie was talking about returning to work while she was still in hospital from her hospital bed, which the biggest issue probably wasn't around motivating her, but around assuring her family that her returning to work was not going to be a bad thing for her.

DESCRIPTION:

Julie talks during scenes of Jess at home:

Jess smiles as she paints an abstract watercolour in a book.

Jess’ fingers tap away at the keyboard.

JULIE:
Jess was an OSH worker, which meant she would have been on her feet running around after kids all day, so we had to find a way to transition the skills that she had into a completely different role, and we were able to achieve that. And it's been ongoing now for nearly, I think, close to 18 months, which is very, very fortunate.

JESS:
I felt really good about going back to work. It was really nice to see people I knew. I'm staying within what I can physically and mentally do. They've been very supportive with me slowly coming back up my hours. I'm currently at five hours a day. I started off at one and that was like two days a week.

DESCRIPTION:

Jess continues working at the dining table.

JESS:
So we've very much come a long way in that, and it hasn't felt like a bad thing. It's felt really positive.

DESCRIPTION:

In the backyard, Jess takes the chew toy from the dog.

Later, she rubs and kisses the dog as it sits on the patio chair.

JESS:
Life's better and I'm able to walk around the home without crutches.

I have a lovely dog and I'd say without my family and friends, I would not have gotten this far. They're a very good support system. I've got very good friends. For morale they would actually come in and visit me and we'd play Dungeons and Dragons, which is something we were doing before, which was really fun and really took my mind off of being in hospital. Yeah. So probably without them, I wouldn't be here.

DESCRIPTION:

Jess nods, her eyes glistening.

JULIE:
Everybody deals with situations like that differently. And I think Jess is a great example of where you, when you do have that family and those friends, that network, it can make a really, really big difference on how someone recovers and how their outlook is. So yeah, lean on others and don't ever compare your journey to someone else's because everybody's is different.

JESS:
My advice to other workers out there who are injured that, one, it does get better. Trust your case manager. They're there to help you. I'd say a positive mental state will help you through the negatives that will, will eventually come and get you out onto the other side.

(MUSIC PLAYS)

DESCRIPTION:
Sunshine glistens on the horizontal red and lime interlocking swooshes of the ReturnToWorkSA logo.
The swooshes reduce in size, settling into place above the red ‘SA’. A faded reflection of the logo on the pale-grey background.
Grey text appears below the logo. First, ‘Return to work.’ Then, underneath, ‘Return to life.’ Both ‘work’ and ‘life’ are bolded and italicised.