1. Empowerment of personal injury victims Amsterdam Interdisciplinary Centre for Law and Health Nieke Elbers, M.Sc. Empowerment of personal injury victims

2. Outline 1.Introduction Secondary victimisation Procedural justice 2.Intervention E-health website 3.Method Empirical research Effect on well-being? 4.Conclusion Planning Relevance

3. Empowerment of personal injury victims 1. Introduction Current claims settlement: Negative impact on victims’ psychological and physical recovery Focusing on monetary damage Immaterial needs are not taken into account

4. Empowerment of personal injury victims 1. Introduction Victims experience: Lack of information Lack of involvement Lack of ‘voice’ Lack of trust Lack of communication Conclusion: Secondary victimization i.e. Renewed victimization caused by process of claims settlement

5. Empowerment of personal injury victims 1. Introduction Information Explanation Voice Respect Politeness FairnessWell-being Procedural justice: Procedural aspects more important than outcome

6. Empowerment of personal injury victims 2. Intervention Interactive website (e-health): 1)Information 2)E-coach Claims settlement Representative Opposite party Social security Conflict Problem solving 5 weekly lessons Reading, examples, assignments Feedback

7. Empowerment of personal injury victims 2. Intervention Other e-coach websites: Mental health, e.g. depression, anxiety Empirically tested: 80% feels better Physical health, e.g. MS, cancer New: Personal injury Translation: ‘Grip op my case’

8. Empowerment of personal injury victims 2. Intervention Mark 25 years old Construction worker Back and hip injury Problems: Compensation settlement Injury Susan 41 years old Secretary Whiplash injury Problems: Medically: Not taken seriously Financial insecurity Philip 53 years old Software engineer Leg fracture Problems: Liability: Self blame Accident trauma Potential target group:

9. Empowerment of personal injury victims 2. Intervention E-coach: 1. Determine problems  distinguish solvable, unimportant, unsolvable 2. Tackle solvable problems  step-by-step plan, communication techniques 3. Tackle unimportant problems  thinking errors 4. Tackle unsolvable problems  stages of grief, promoting acceptance 5. Make future plan  to achieve important things in life

10. Empowerment of personal injury victims 3. Method Validation website: Interviews Need assessment, examples, cases Focus group (expert meeting) Information module: simple, clear, neutral E-coach module: supporting Pilot User friendliness, comprehensibility

11. Empowerment of personal injury victims 3. Method Baseline 3 months 6 months 12 months Control groupIntervention group Empowerment Justice Wellbeing Stress Costs Knowledge 340 personal injury victims Demographics Case details Severity of injury compare

12. Empowerment of personal injury victims 4. Conclusion Results of study in 2011 Insight in secondary victimization en procedural justice Improving wellbeing of personal injury victims Implementation website in 2012 First e-health intervention in legal practice

13. Empowerment of personal injury victims Thank you Contact information: Nieke Elbers n.elbers@law.vu.nl