Psychological injury and workers’ compensation
If you have suffered a work-related psychological injury you may be entitled to lodge a claim with your employer’s workers’ compensation insurer (this will usually be WorkCover Queensland, but there are some employers who are self-insured).
A work-related psychological injury may be a completely new injury, but can also include an aggravation or deterioration of a pre-existing injury caused by your work.
You don’t need to prove that your employer was at fault to make a worker’s compensation claim. You just need to show that:
1. You are a worker;
2. You suffered a personal injury;
3. You suffered the injury in the course of [your] employment; and
4. Your employment was a significant contributing factor to the injury.
Unlike a claim for a physical injury, psychological injury claims are subjected to an exclusion under the relevant legislation that can make it difficult to get the claim accepted. This is referred to as the reasonable management action exclusion. The workers’ compensation insurer will be entitled to reject a claim in certain circumstances, including if the psychological injury arose out of, or in the course of:
reasonable management action taken in a reasonable way by the employer in connection with the employment;
your expectation or perception of reasonable management action.
Decisions relating to psychological injury claims generally take longer than decisions relating to physical injury claims. It is therefore important to lodge your claim as soon as possible.
Helpfully, workers who have lodged a claim for psychological injury will have early intervention support provided to them whilst the claim is being decided. The early support is to ensure you are able to continue to access services such as counselling/psychology sessions, psychiatry appointments, medication costs, etc.
If eligible, and your claim is accepted, you may be entitled to the following statutory benefits:
Medical and hospital expenses
Rehabilitation costs
Weekly benefits for lost wages
Reimbursement of some out-of-pocket expenses such as medications and travel for appointments
Lump sum compensation for permanent injuries
Generally, an application for workers’ compensation must be lodged within 6 months of suffering the injury; however, the workers’ compensation insurer can waive this time frame in particular circumstances. For example, if the injury was sustained over a period of time and you were not assessed as being unfit for work (whether partially or totally) straight away the insurer may elect to accept the application provided it is lodged within 20 business days of that assessment taking place.
The statutory benefits claim will only continue until your injuries are ‘stable’. At that point, you are entitled to be assessed by the insurer to determine whether you have suffered any degree of permanent impairment and, if so, be offered lump sum compensation. The offer is made in a document called a ‘Notice of Assessment’.
It is very important that you seek legal advice immediately upon receiving a Notice of Assessment because:
if you need to challenge the medical assessment determining your degree of impairment you only have 20 business days to do so;
if you accept the lump sum compensation it may forever prevent you from pursuing a damages claim.
For more assistance
If you’ve sustained work-related psychological injuries and need assistance navigating the pathway to compensation, give the team at Southside Legal a call today.
