Advocating and Educating

The headline for Mark Pew’s On the Job column this month—“Strategies for a Better Return-to-Work Process” (page 10)—does too much to conceal the heart-felt sentiment contained within it. It’s an emotional, intimate piece about caring for a terminally ill parent from the perspective of a child who happens to be well educated on pain management. I hope the lessons that Mark distills so eloquently stay with you; I know they stayed with me.

Mark’s piece is a reminder that while the ability to empathize makes up the heart and soul of a successful claims professional, education and knowledge brings with it a different kind of comfort: assurance of proper care.

It’s with this advocacy in mind and the fact that workers’ compensation is such a challenging line of business that CLM is launching of a new publication to help keep workers’ compensation professionals educated and informed. Coming soon to a mailbox near you is WC Magazine, which is dedicated to putting the spotlight on the underserved workers’ compensation industry. A bi-monthly magazine, WC Magazine will be headed up editorially by Joan Collier, an accomplished writer and editor who has focused on this line for many years—quite successfully and with great skill, I might add.

Putting yourself in someone else’s shoes requires a high level of emotional intelligence. Helping them recover and find resolution, however, demands education and knowledge. I hope you find those practical skills in these pages and in those of CLM’s other publications, whose numbers continue to grow!