Medico-Legal

accent is in a unique position to conduct medico-legal assessments.  Each staff member carries a clinical caseload in addition to conducting medico-legal assessments.  This enables the therapist or counsellor to keep abreast of therapeutic programs, community services and the issues surrounding acute and post injury/illness stages.

accent staff have been conducting medico-legal assessments for over 10 years.  We conduct: 

• Occupational Therapy assessments
• Vocational assessments
• Speech and communication assessments

In the past, we have found that each of our professionals' credibility and recognition as an expert witness in court has been enhanced by:

• Having conducted both assessments for the plaintiff and defendant.
• Clinical expertise.
• Being a treating practitioner concurrent to the medico-legal assessments.

The medico-legal assessment and report can focus on a broad range of issues and depends on the specific questions posed.  Accent reports are comprehensive and reflect the clients individual needs.

•  Specialising in the following diagnostic groups:

o        Brain Injury/Neurology

o        Amputations

o        Spinal Cord Injury

o       Simple and complex orthopaedic injuries

Expert Occupational Therapists (Medico Legal Reports)

As Occupational Therapists, the area of specialty involves the person's day to day life, including activities at home, self-care, work and leisure.  As a result, the assessment is almost always conducted at the person's home.

Our expert Occupational Therapists conduct an extensive assessment that includes:

• Interview.
• Observation of function.
• Formal functional/physical assessment.
• Use of various standardised and non-standardised assessment tools and indexes aimed providing opinion that is evidenced based.
• Reference to norms, stats and clinical reasoning.
• Using current literature references to support our professional recommendations.

The result is a report that is concise yet very comprehensive and most of all, useable.

The expert Occupational Therapists scope includes but is not limited to:

• Attendant care/personal care requirements
• Domestic assistance.
• Home maintenance assistance.
• Activities of Daily Living - level of independence.
• Typical daily routine.
• Future accommodation requirements of home modifications required (The solicitor needs to obtain costing of these recommendations from a builder or architect).
• Level of care provided by family members or friends.
• Future therapy needs and costs (occupational therapy).
• Equipments needs and approximate costs.
• Functional Ability.
• Community access/transport.
• Comment on work options within current level of transferable skills.

Accent's expert Occupational Therapists are:

• Daniel De Paoli (BAppSc OT) 12 years.
• Susan Arnold (Dip OT, Masters in OT, MAA Assessor) 32 years LTCS Assessor.
• Dr Belinda Shepherd (PhD in OT) 16 years MAA Assessor, LTCS Assessor & Authorised Visitor with the Office of the Protective Commissioner.

Expert Vocational Assessments (Medico Legal Reports)

The assessments and subsequent reports submitted by accent is completed by an expert and well experienced professional who's main role at Accent is to maintain a full time clinical caseload of clients that require vocational assistance and re-direction.

An accent vocational assessment and report includes:

• Assessment of vocational potential.
• Current work options (includes potential for training).
• Potential weekly wage.
• Labour market (may involve a separate labour market report by a labour market specialist - to be discussed with the referring solicitor at the time of referral).

accent's expert Vocational Assessors are:

• Geraldine Waters (BApplSc SP, BSc Psychology) 18 years