Most people think of workers’ compensation benefits as something people get if they’ve been physically injured at work or developed an illness due to a workplace-related incident or exposure. Increasingly, however, workers’ comp benefits are becoming available to those who have developed mental health issues due to traumatic events they’ve faced in the course of their employment.
Workers’ comp benefits for mental health issues have traditionally been limited to first responders like law enforcement officers, firefighters and emergency medical services (EMS) workers who have to deal with violence, death and other traumatizing events as part of their job.
However, those in other professions can potentially experience such an event at work as well. With the rise in workplace violence and mass shootings, for example, a person in just about any job can go to work on a seemingly normal day and witness or even be the victim of violence. People in frontline jobs like cashiers and tellers can be robbed at gunpoint.
The traumatizing event doesn’t have to involve a violent or otherwise criminal act. Those in potentially dangerous professions like construction and manufacturing can be traumatized by seeing a co-worker catastrophically injured or killed in an accident – or by seeing or providing aid in the aftermath.
Changes to Connecticut law
Last year, Connecticut law expanded workers’ comp benefits for post-traumatic stress injuries (PTSI). They’re now available not just to first responders but to anyone covered by workers’ comp who develops PTSI as the direct result of a traumatic event they witnessed or were the victim of at work. A worker must be diagnosed by a qualified mental health professional to be eligible for workers’ comp. Further, the traumatic event they witnessed or experienced must be a “substantial factor” in causing the PTSI.
The law describes qualifying events such as witnessing an “incident involving someone’s death,” including an injury to a person “who then dies before or upon admission to a hospital.” Another is witnessing an injury that “results in the loss of a vital body part or a vital body function that permanently disfigures the victim.”
The expansion of these benefits in Connecticut is a big step in recognizing how serious psychological injuries caused by traumatic events are. However, it’s still more challenging to prove a psychological injury than a physical one – even with the help of a mental health care provider. For workers who have difficulty getting the benefits they need and are entitled to, getting experienced legal guidance can help.