Anchor Mode
Anchor Mode: Avoidant, Adversarial, Attached to barriers.
- Definition: The worker feels stuck, resistant to RTW, and focused on barriers or injustices.
- RTW View: Generally feels they need to fully Recover before they can RTW (i.e. "I need to be 100%", "I need to be pain free").
- Characteristics:
- Very low sense of control when it comes to their recovery and RTW
- Very poor understanding of their situation
- Often seeking medical solutions to unsolvable conditions
- Hoping the next treatment/intervention/diagnostic will "find what's wrong" or "fix" them.
- Very poor understanding of the process and where they are in it
- It is common they will default to exerting a sense of control by enlisting advocates (i.e. attorneys, union stewards, workers' advocates)
- Very poor understanding of their situation
- Strong focus on externalizing blame (Perceived Injustice) or responsibility which further disrupts a sense of control.
- Catastrophic thinking around pain, circumstances, lack of support or understanding from others
- Avoidant or resistant to RTW efforts due to poor sense they can manage things (i.e. their pain, the process, returning to work, communicating others)
- May hear statements around lack of readiness to RTW
- "I'm not ready to RTW"
- May see Doctor sheilding
- "My doctor says I am not ready to RTW yet. He will let me know when I can."
- May hear statements around lack of readiness to RTW
- Very low sense of control when it comes to their recovery and RTW
- Key Strategies:
- Surface the worker's Motivation.
- Identify Unsolvable Problems and help worker work through them.
- Ensure to explicitly follow the Sequence of Worker-Centricity: Lead-->Add-->Mix.