Alberta WCB employee helps injured workers do their jobs, by building tools and modifying their work spaces
If Rene Doucet’s colleagues can’t find the right equipment to help an injured worker they know they can count on him to build it.
For instance, when an ergonomics consultant at the rehabilitation centre Doucet works at couldn’t find a tool to help a woman with one hand do her administration job.
Paolo Naccarato, an ergonomics consultant at Millard Health, the Workers’ Compensation Board (WCB) Alberta’s rehabilitation centre, was trying to help an injured worker perform tasks like opening letters and stapling.
“That’s really hard when you have one hand,” says Naccarato.
Naccarato couldn’t find a tool for her in Canada, but he found a piece of equipment in Australia to assist with opening and folding letters. When he called Australia, he discovered that the woman who used the device had died 10 years earlier.
He was able to get a picture of the tool, which he gave to Doucet. And based on the photo alone, Doucet was able to build the tool for the injured worker.
“He’s been invaluable,” says Naccarato of Doucet’s work at the facility.
As a technical instructor, Doucet works with clinicians at the centre to modify workstations for injured workers, goes on site visits with clinicians and leads orientation seminars for clients entering the facility for a rehab program.
If his tasks seemed varied, that’s because they are. Or as Doucet says, he is “the go to guy if something needs to be done” at the Edmonton centre with about 350 employees.
He builds elevated workstations, modifies desks and has added hydraulics to drafting tables to make them appropriate for use by injured clients or as modifications to prevent injuries.
“Sometimes people, for some unknown reason, are not always built the same,” he says. “But an employer doesn’t look at it that way, they look at it as: Well there’s the workstation, make it work.”
His projects have ranged from overhauls of entire assembly lines to smaller, but no less important jobs, like making the tool for Naccarato’s client.
Doucet knows what injured workers face because he was injured on the job more than two decades ago.
At the time he was working in the housing sector. With a background in construction, he had a love of carpentry and was a welder by trade.
That was until Doucet’s career trajectory took a very different turn, when he fell 23 feet on a jobsite and injured his spinal cord.
His fall brought him to WCB Alberta’s rehabilitation centre where he received treatment for his workplace injury. But when his rehab program ended in 1988, Doucet couldn’t stay away.
In January 1989, he applied for a job at the rehab facility, after being encouraged to do so by the clinicians who helped him through the rehabilitation process.
“That was 22 years ago,” he says.
Doucet acknowledges that his personal experience with workplace injury is part of what makes it easier to build a rapport with the clients at Millard.
“It just makes it a little bit more personal on their side of it when someone’s been in the shoes that they’re still in,” he says. “And even though it’s been 20 some years, it’s still easy for me to talk about.”
All those years after his injury, Doucet says he is still mindful of the strain the fall has on his body.
He no longer needs physical therapy, but his back reminds him of the fateful day that ended his construction career.
“I still have to be my best friend, because if I do things I know I’m not supposed to, I will pay for it tomorrow.”
That lesson has proved to be a valuable teaching tool when he is dealing with clients who are having a bad day and are frustrated or angry.
He tells them they are either going to be their own best friend or worst enemy during the recovery process and all the life that comes after it, he says.
And that might be why the psychology department at the facility calls Doucet “the reality doctor,” he says.
“I don’t mix words.”
But that doesn’t mean he’s not compassionate and sympathetic to how they are feeling.
If there’s a client that’s having difficulty adjusting to the program, it’s not unusual to see Doucet sitting in the cafeteria with the injured worker and chatting over a coffee, say co-workers.
“We’ll sit down and over a cup a coffee, we’ll just talk.”
One thing that can either be a help or a hindrance to Doucet’s tasks is whether an employer is prepared to make the sometimes extensive adjustments needed to make their workplace healthier or accommodate a worker, he says.
“When they buy into it and they can see what they’re getting out of it, they really appreciate it and not only them, their workers (too),” says Doucet.
It’s easier now to get that buy in than it was when he started.
“Because it’s costing a lot of money on their parts, it’s not only time, it’s employees, retraining money, costs of claims, lots of stuff that comes in the picture,” he said. “When you can show them it’s going to help in the long run and the benefit is going to be for everyone, then they look at it a little different.”
“Once you get the buy in, after that it’s easy.”
For instance, when an ergonomics consultant at the rehabilitation centre Doucet works at couldn’t find a tool to help a woman with one hand do her administration job.
Paolo Naccarato, an ergonomics consultant at Millard Health, the Workers’ Compensation Board (WCB) Alberta’s rehabilitation centre, was trying to help an injured worker perform tasks like opening letters and stapling.
“That’s really hard when you have one hand,” says Naccarato.
Naccarato couldn’t find a tool for her in Canada, but he found a piece of equipment in Australia to assist with opening and folding letters. When he called Australia, he discovered that the woman who used the device had died 10 years earlier.
He was able to get a picture of the tool, which he gave to Doucet. And based on the photo alone, Doucet was able to build the tool for the injured worker.
“He’s been invaluable,” says Naccarato of Doucet’s work at the facility.
As a technical instructor, Doucet works with clinicians at the centre to modify workstations for injured workers, goes on site visits with clinicians and leads orientation seminars for clients entering the facility for a rehab program.
If his tasks seemed varied, that’s because they are. Or as Doucet says, he is “the go to guy if something needs to be done” at the Edmonton centre with about 350 employees.
He builds elevated workstations, modifies desks and has added hydraulics to drafting tables to make them appropriate for use by injured clients or as modifications to prevent injuries.
“Sometimes people, for some unknown reason, are not always built the same,” he says. “But an employer doesn’t look at it that way, they look at it as: Well there’s the workstation, make it work.”
His projects have ranged from overhauls of entire assembly lines to smaller, but no less important jobs, like making the tool for Naccarato’s client.
Doucet knows what injured workers face because he was injured on the job more than two decades ago.
At the time he was working in the housing sector. With a background in construction, he had a love of carpentry and was a welder by trade.
That was until Doucet’s career trajectory took a very different turn, when he fell 23 feet on a jobsite and injured his spinal cord.
His fall brought him to WCB Alberta’s rehabilitation centre where he received treatment for his workplace injury. But when his rehab program ended in 1988, Doucet couldn’t stay away.
In January 1989, he applied for a job at the rehab facility, after being encouraged to do so by the clinicians who helped him through the rehabilitation process.
“That was 22 years ago,” he says.
Doucet acknowledges that his personal experience with workplace injury is part of what makes it easier to build a rapport with the clients at Millard.
“It just makes it a little bit more personal on their side of it when someone’s been in the shoes that they’re still in,” he says. “And even though it’s been 20 some years, it’s still easy for me to talk about.”
All those years after his injury, Doucet says he is still mindful of the strain the fall has on his body.
He no longer needs physical therapy, but his back reminds him of the fateful day that ended his construction career.
“I still have to be my best friend, because if I do things I know I’m not supposed to, I will pay for it tomorrow.”
That lesson has proved to be a valuable teaching tool when he is dealing with clients who are having a bad day and are frustrated or angry.
He tells them they are either going to be their own best friend or worst enemy during the recovery process and all the life that comes after it, he says.
And that might be why the psychology department at the facility calls Doucet “the reality doctor,” he says.
“I don’t mix words.”
But that doesn’t mean he’s not compassionate and sympathetic to how they are feeling.
If there’s a client that’s having difficulty adjusting to the program, it’s not unusual to see Doucet sitting in the cafeteria with the injured worker and chatting over a coffee, say co-workers.
“We’ll sit down and over a cup a coffee, we’ll just talk.”
One thing that can either be a help or a hindrance to Doucet’s tasks is whether an employer is prepared to make the sometimes extensive adjustments needed to make their workplace healthier or accommodate a worker, he says.
“When they buy into it and they can see what they’re getting out of it, they really appreciate it and not only them, their workers (too),” says Doucet.
It’s easier now to get that buy in than it was when he started.
“Because it’s costing a lot of money on their parts, it’s not only time, it’s employees, retraining money, costs of claims, lots of stuff that comes in the picture,” he said. “When you can show them it’s going to help in the long run and the benefit is going to be for everyone, then they look at it a little different.”
“Once you get the buy in, after that it’s easy.”
