JESSICA CUCCHIARO

Director, Consultant Psychologist, Assessability

Jessica Cucchiaro is a registered Psychologist and practising Rehabilitation Counsellor; having been a member of ASORC since 2016. Commencing her career working in clinical psychological practice, Jessica subsequently transitioned into vocational rehabilitation; working across multiple frameworks include life insurance, worker’s compensation, CTP and JobActive. In 2015, Jessica established her own boutique rehabilitation provider (Assessability); specialising in the provision of forensic vocational assessments. Beyond this, Jessica remains actively engaged in the provision of occupational and vocational services; fulfilling her passion for work in this specialty, and ensuring continued up-skilling in relation to the ever-changing Australian labour market.

conference presentation

Vocational assessing in life insurance - how Rehabilitation Counsellors can shine across Income Protection (IP) and Total and Permanent Disablement (TPD)

Co-presented with Alicia Gibbs

Within the life insurance industry, vocational assessing has a place across IP and TPD products; however, the intent of the assessment can vary significantly based on the product and specific policy definition wording. Whilst Rehabilitation Counsellors are trained in the completion of vocational assessments; employability assessments are a life insurance-specific report with notable differences in content and intent. Moreover, the industry has also seen a recent shift towards the use of standalone transferrable skills analyses as an alternate or additional form of vocational assessing.

This presentation aims to address some of the key differences across life insurance products, and provide guidance to rehabilitation counsellors on how best to support the life insurance industry in being vocational subject matter experts; whether the aim is to support a customer to return to work, or provide independent assessment on employability.