Brenda’s Story

Brenda: I’m someone who has always prided myself on being active and healthy and actually helping others. I’m not used to really getting help.

Slate: Brenda RBC Insurance^® Client with a Disability claim

Brenda: Okay, I want to thank my mother and my dad who’s no longer with us, my neighbours, the insurance company, my boss who was very understanding. Oh, my massage therapist Nick, my sports doctor, my own doctor. I’m not crazy about her but she was okay.

Well, it happened I guess almost a year and a half ago. I was starting to have trouble with my arm and it was quite painful.

It got so bad I was referred to a sports doctor and he sent me for an MRI and I was told that I had a partial tear of my rotator cuff, because I kept using my arm, it led to a frozen shoulder.

When I heard how long potentially it could take, they estimated it would take about eighteen months. I was mortified.

It’s kind of scary, you know, when you have an injury and it stops you from doing things. Even things like washing my hair in the shower, I couldn’t do it.

I couldn’t even go visit my mom, and I’m her primary caregiver.

I really get how people can get very isolated and get very depressed, and especially if you’re worried about where are you going to get the money to pay your mortgage, you know, just your groceries, paying your bills.

Carol Lebert: Every individual situation is unique. We want to understand the challenges first, there is the physical disability, there’s the financial and then there’s of course the emotional challenges.

Slate: RBC Insurance Director, Support Services

Carol Lebert: When you are feeling so low and someone comes alongside you and say “Hey, I’m here to help you get your life back on track and here’s how we are going to do it.” That’s an amazing feeling. So, we are there to help and give them the steps to help them to return to work.

Brenda: I’m used to not being sick very often. So when this happened, I was concerned because I didn’t want to let people down. And the insurance company, they were great. I never felt hurried.

Carol Lebert: Brenda was off work for two months, but it took her about six months to return to work full time. It started very, very slowly, just four hours a day, two days a week.

Returning to work is a team effort it is not an individual effort. So, we work with the employer, the doctor, the client, and the work site to return someone to work.

We will do things like provide ergonomic assessments, we will do occupational analysis, we will do job coordination, to return someone to productive lives because we want people to get back their lives. To get their lives back on track.

Brenda: They were excellent because they really encouraged me to get healthy. And that’s a nice thing to hear. And I think that was a bit of an incentive for me to take the time to do what I needed to do to get better and to get the job done.

I would have to say it was a very good first experience for me because I’ve never had to use this kind of insurance.

Carol Lebert: Disability insurance is so important, not only for individuals but for families as well.

Brenda: It was so challenging but it was just a real relief that my life could continue on in a way that at times didn’t feel like it was going to happen. So here I am, yay!