Dr Jo Prendergast: ‘Being a mental injury assessor is so rewarding’
Are you an experienced clinical psychologist or psychiatrist who is keen to add some variety to your work, flexibility in your schedule and the chance to help people during a critical time in their lives? If so, then we’d love to hear from you at ACC.
We're experiencing growing demand from clients seeking ACC support following sexual abuse or assault. To meet this critical need, we're looking for experienced clinical psychologists and psychiatrists to join us as assessors under our mental injury contracts.
This is a chance to use your clinical expertise to conduct comprehensive assessments for clients seeking mental injury support and financial compensation. This work helps New Zealanders access vital care and financial support so they can recover and return to independence.
“I think it’s an amazing job,” says Dr Jo Prendergast, a mental injury assessor for ACC who has worked as a psychiatrist for over 25 years.
“I like the flexibility of the role and the variety of the work, while it’s also really rewarding and intellectually challenging. Some of the clinical presentations you see are incredibly complex, they’re often people who’ve had very severe trauma.
“And they’re also often people who wouldn’t normally be able to access an in-depth psychiatry assessment, so it’s very rewarding to work with this group and feel like I’m doing something worthwhile.”
Helping people feel heard
Dr Jo believes the attributes needed to perform well as a mental injury assessor for ACC are generally aligned with the traits of a good psychiatrist.
“I think the most important thing is being able to make somebody feel comfortable and develop a connection the first time you meet them,” she says.
“It’s also important to go into the assessment with an open mind and look very broadly at all the information available.
“The most rewarding thing for me is when somebody who’s had severe trauma tells me the report really captured their story accurately and that they felt heard.”
Helping people get treatment and support
Through the Psychiatric Services and the Sensitive Claims Service contracts, psychiatrists working for ACC can offer assessments to determine cover for mental injuries and someone’s ability to work.
They can also identify and provide the right rehabilitation options to help kiritaki (clients) get back to work and independence.
There are two opportunities to provide assessments through the Sensitive Claims Service. You can apply to provide Specialist Cover Assessments and/or Function Assessments.
A Specialist Cover Assessment is used to determine cover for a mental injury caused by sexual abuse and assault and provides ACC with a formal diagnosis. This type of assessment is needed if clients request financial support, while Function Assessments are used to determine a client’s ability to work.
“When I started becoming an ACC assessor, I felt like I knew all there was to know about psychiatry,” Dr Jo says.
“But I quickly realised there were additional skills to develop, which made it a really rewarding opportunity to grow in my mid-career.”
A multi-disciplinary approach
Dr Jo brings a wealth of experience and perspective to her work as an assessor. Alongside her clinical career, she’s also an author and breast cancer survivor, experiences that have deepened her understanding of what people face during difficult times in their lives.
Not surprisingly, she relishes the fact that there are many different aspects to being a mental injury assessor for ACC.
“One of the things I really enjoyed about being a psychiatrist is the multi-disciplinary approach and I was surprised that I could still have that as an ACC assessor,” she says.
“I spend a lot of time talking with people’s lead provider, with their GP and other people involved in the rehabilitation team. So I feel like I’m very much part of the MDT (multi-disciplinary team).”
A multi-disciplinary team is a group of healthcare professionals from various specialties who collaborate to evaluate a patient’s condition and develop a unified, comprehensive plan.
Dedicated, thorough and ‘never dull’
Dr Jo also appreciates the flexibility of being able to book in assessments at times that work with her other commitments, and that she has sufficient time and headspace to give each client.
She tends to devote one week to each case, spending the first couple of days reading the file, gathering information and talking to the lead provider before meeting with the client for a three-hour appointment mid-week.
The rest of the week is then dedicated to putting the report together and getting it finalised.
“I like doing it that way because I can then just have one person in my head all week,” she says.
“You’re exploring all that background history and really trying to make sense of the person, what they’re presenting with and the difficulties they’re having.
“It’s certainly never dull – it’s very stimulating.”
More information
To learn more about working with ACC as a mental injury assessor and how to apply, please visit our website:
