Can I Make a Claim For Psychological Damage Suffered at Work?

Your work environment can pose risks to both your physical and mental health. If you’ve suffered psychological damage due to your job, you may be able to make a claim. PK Simpson specialises in these sensitive compensation cases.

If you’ve tried to resolve these problems via appropriate avenues, with your employer e.g., with no success and you feel you are being subjected to psychiatric injury or harm, you might be wondering about a comp claim. Before you do, you should consider whether you’re eligible, what is required, what options are available to you, and the factors in successful claims to ascertain your chances of succeeding. Always consult your personal injury lawyer in Sydney for advice before lodging any claims or giving up. For successful claims for compensation work-related harm or injury of a psychiatric nature in NSW, you must have suffered a recognised psychiatric condition, and preferably one that’s been diagnosed by a psychiatrist.

Psychiatric Injury Claims and Workers Compensation

Workplace psychological injury may be the result of different events including:

• work-related harassment and bullying
• experiencing or exposure to a traumatic event
• violence at work
• high work pressure
• job insecurity

You cannot claim workers comp for a psychological injury without being able to provide acceptable medical evidence that your psychological or psychiatric disorder has resulted from your employment. A medical certificate for mental stress is not enough to claim comp for a psychiatric injury sustained at work. You will need to fill in forms, be assessed by an accredited specialist to determine whether you are eligible. Your lawyer will arrange this for you but will also tell you that claims for work related psychiatric injury are made less frequently than those for physical injury. The reason is because claims for psychiatric injury workers comp can be much more complex, with lower chances of eventual return to your usual employment and longer periods of time off work. Psychological (psychiatric) injury claims can greatly affect the wellbeing of the worker who has been injured, employers, and in the end, the community(1)

Where Psychological Compensation Claims Fail

If your mental health problem is caused (or is mainly caused) by reasonable management action by your employer, then your employer can claim no liability and your claim for psychiatric injury workers comp will not be accepted. This means that any action by bosses or employers to demote, transfer, dismiss or retrench a worker will not be accepted as a reason for psychiatric injury if it can be successfully argued that such actions were reasonable. If your employer wants you to participate in an appraisal of your performance, this can also be deemed ‘reasonable action’. Your Sydney lawyers will be able to advise you about your particular case and what compensation amount a payout for psychological injury is likely to be, so don’t hesitate to make contact as soon as possible if you sustain a psychological injury at work.

Your lawyers will help you to complete forms and lodge any claims for psychiatric injury in the workplace, so don’t hesitate to contact PK Simpson and a lawyer will talk you through the process of your particular case.

You’re in safe hands with PK Simpson – We can help you receive workers comp for your psychiatric damage

Psychological Damage & Worker’s Compensation

Expert workers comp injury lawyers know that it’s much less complicated to establish negligence in cases of physical injury than it is for claims of psychiatric damage, because the latter is complex and much harder to prove. Sadly, the person making the claim is often the reason for this, because they don’t fully understand the cause of their injury – it’s intangible, and can be hard to connect the cause of the damage to the incident or incidents.

With workplace claims of psychological damage, an employee might have been reluctant to tell anyone about an incident for fear of losing their job. In this case, telling the employer or employers would be difficult for them. Then there’s the stigma surrounding mental conditions which makes people reticent about disclosing their psychological damage. If employers are not aware of their employee’s psychiatric damage or mental difficulties, it makes it hard to establish employer negligence. Being unaware of the distress the employee is undergoing means employers cannot take any reasonable, preventative steps.

No Win – No Fee – and at PK Simpson, your workers comp lawyer will arrange and pay for all medical reports for free, so there is no financial strain on your part – We also win over 99 percent of cases!

Whole Person Impairment and Psychological Injury

Part of your assessment for eligibility to make a workers comp psychiatric injury claim is whether or not such injury has impaired at least 15 per cent of your ‘whole person’. This way of assessing a person’s injury was brought in to make the process fair, so anyone with a comparable injury can be granted a similar payment amount.

For over 35 years, PK Simpson has been helping the people of NSW get the workers comp they are entitled to receive – Our team is made up of top workers compensation lawyer professionals with the skills and experience to make sure your claim is successful

Why You Will Need Legal Help to Make a Claim

The process of lodging a claim for psychiatric damage, proving that you have been injured and how it has affected your life and wellbeing is very difficult and stressful in itself, but not impossible.

How Much Compensation Can You Receive For Psychological Damage?

Emotional trauma can be devastating and severely affect a person’s quality of life.

Types of Psychological Injury at Work

• Social withdrawal
• Irritability
• Mood swings
• Fatigue
• Insomnia
• Concentration difficulties
• Loss of appetite
• Fear and chronic anxiety

If you or someone you know has suffered a work-related psychological injury and feel that you are entitled to claim compensation, call PK Simpson on 02 9299 1424 or email [email protected] to book an appointment.

References

1. http://returntowork.workplace-mentalhealth.net.au/about-returntoworknetau