Your mind is just as important as your body, and keeping healthy through difficult working conditions often means taking your mental health as seriously as your physical health. If you suffered a mental health injury at work, you can often file a Workers’ Comp claim, especially if it is linked to a physical injury as well.
Filing a claim for a mental health issue on its own, with no physical symptoms, can be challenging, but it is possible. However, if the mental health portion of the claim is tied to a physical injury – such as PTSD after a serious work injury – or manifested physical symptoms – such as a heart attack – then coverage is a bit simpler. In any case, pain and suffering damages are not available through Workers’ Comp and only come through a lawsuit, if available.
For help with your work injury, call the Certified Pennsylvania Workers’ Compensation Lawyers at Cardamone Law today at (267) 651-7945.
Can You Get Workers’ Comp for Mental Health Issues?
Workers’ Comp is supposed to be available for all injuries you sustain at work, including mental health issues.
Requirements
To get compensation, you need to prove three things:
- You are an employee.
- You were injured in the course of your job duties.
- The injury is disabling.
Physical vs. Mental Health Injury Requirements
These same standards apply to physical injuries and mental health injuries. However, it is harder to prove that “purely mental” harms exist unless there are physical symptoms associated.
This means you can ultimately file a claim for any mental health issues you sustain on the job, but it may be harder to prove the claim.
Mental Health Issues from Physical Injuries
If the mental health issues you suffered are the result of physical injuries, this is the most straightforward type of “mental health claim” for Workers’ Comp, also called a “physical-mental” injury. This is the case because you have some physical harm to prove the mental health issues, and doctors/psychiatrists can link those two issues.
Mental Health Therapy Covered for Physical Injuries
Usually, Workers’ Comp covers lost wages and medical bills for any work-related injury. This includes all of the healthcare bills, whether they are for surgeries, physical therapy, or mental health therapy.
Examples of Physical-Mental Injuries
This commonly covers things like
- Treatment for PTSD after a seriously traumatic injury
- Depression stemming from dealing with a newfound disability.
Mental Health Issues with Physical Manifestations
We’ve already covered mental health issues stemming from physical injuries, but you can also make claims for mental health issues that cause physical injuries – also known as “mental-physical” injuries. In these cases, there is hard, physical evidence of the injury, even if the injury was “psychological” in nature.
Examples of Mental-Physical Injuries
This commonly covers things like
- Heart attacks and strokes from work-related stress
- Ulcers from work-related stress
- Other symptoms of physical exhaustion that are sufficiently disabling.
Proof of Physical Symptoms is Sufficient
The fact that there is a physical manifestation helps prove this case, so there isn’t any extra proof needed. The fact that the mental health episode was serious enough to affect your physical health is proof enough that you have a bodily injury covered under the Workers’ Comp Act.
However, you do still need to prove it was work-related and disabling to get benefits.
“Purely Mental” Injuries
The hardest area of mental health injury to prove in a Work Comp case is the kind that has no physical symptoms.
How Mental-Mental Injury Claims Work
Workers’ Comp is designed to cover bodily injuries. With physical-mental or mental-physical cases, there is evidence of physical harm, so there is good proof your injury is legitimate. With injuries that have no physical element – known as “mental-mental” injuries – the law requires extra proof to win your claim.
Proof of Abnormal Working Conditions Needed
In these cases, you typically need evidence that the harm came from “abnormal” working conditions. These would typically qualify:
- A terrible fire or explosion at a chemical plant
- A teacher surviving a school shooting with no injuries
- A warehouse worker witnessing a coworker’s traumatic death.
This kind of claim can cover things like PTSD symptoms, depression, and more.
Exception: Police and First Responders
Mental-only injuries for police officers, firefighters, and other first responders are a bit different, since they face outrageous working conditions all the time. For example, police may witness people killing and hurting each other – and their coworkers – a few times a month, so you can hardly call something like that “abnormal.”
First Responders Have No “Abnormal Work Condition” Requirement
The law for first responders was changed so they no longer have the “abnormal work condition” requirement and can make claims for things like PTSD from the cumulative effects of their normal work.
When Physical Cause or Symptoms Are Present
Again, this requirement is not needed anyway if there are physical symptoms, such as a heart attack, from the stress.
How Do You File Claims for Mental Health Injuries at Work?
To file your claim, you follow the same process you do for any other Workers’ Comp claim:
- Get immediate medical treatment.
- Report the injury to your employer within 21 days.
- Call a Pennsylvania Workers’ Compensation lawyer to help with your case.
- If your claim is denied, file a Claim Petition with the state within 3 years of the injury.
- Work with a lawyer to gather evidence.
- Get doctors’ reports documenting the injury and its work-related cause, as well as the severity of the disabling effects.
- Attend hearings.
- Negotiate settlements through your lawyer.
Can You Get Pain and Suffering for Work-Related Mental Health Cases?
Workers’ Comp does not pay “non-economic” damages like pain and suffering. Often, the toll that an injury takes on your mental health is going to be one of the biggest – and most expensive – effects, but this simply is not covered in a Workers’ Comp claim.
Instead, you have to sue to get these damages covered.
Can You Sue?
If you were injured in the course of your job, you cannot sue your employer or coworkers for that case. You would also have no one to sue if you were the one who caused your own accident.
However, you can sue other parties. This usually allows cases against other drivers, equipment manufacturers, outside contractors, suppliers, and more.
Call Our Workers’ Comp Lawyers in Pennsylvania for Help Today
Call Cardamone Law’s Philadelphia Workers’ Compensation lawyers at (267) 651-7945 to go over your case in a free case review.
