Getting Workers Compensation for PTSD in New Jersey
PTSD is back in New Jersey news after a recent proposal to create a temporary task force to study and provide recommendations of the identification and treatment of pandemic-related PTSD, looking for ways to identify new, alternative, and innovative methods to diagnose and treat the disease.
New Jersey is one of the few states that allows workers compensation payments for PTSD. Yet you must be able to prove that your PTSD stems directly from a workplace incident.
New Jersey has recognized work-related stress since 1992, though the case was a depression case rather than a PTSD case. Still, it offers groundwork and precedence to have work related mental health injuries recognized.
These could include violence at work, lingering trauma from another workplace injury, a car accident, or a lasting pattern of abuse or stress from customers or managers. However, workplace stress and abuse can be extremely difficult to prove.
PTSD for Workplace Stress
To prove PTSD for workplace stress you must be able to show:
- The conditions were stressful, which includes the gradual accumulation of job-related mental stress.
- The worker reacted to them as stressful.
- Those stresses were peculiar to that workplace. For example, police officers, EMTs, and firefighters have an excellent claim that workplace stress is peculiar to their workplaces. So, too, would front line healthcare workers who worked through the pandemic.
- A medical professional has rendered an opinion on the psychic disability.
- The workplace exposure must have caused the PTSD disability.
If you can prove all five factors are true than you can get compensation for PTSD alone, and perhaps time to heal. In many cases, your employer might well try to connect your PTSD to past traumas so their insurance policy doesn’t have to pay for it, especially if you are trying to claim disability.
PTSD for a Workplace Injury
PTSD could be a compounding condition acknowledged in addition to the physical injury that you’ve received.
Your psychological expenses would be compensable just like your physical medical treatment would be. PTSD is a common comorbidity with many injuries, especially disfiguring ones.
Get Help Today
Most employees face an uphill battle whenever psychological damage is part of your workers compensation claim. It’s important to have a qualified workers compensation lawyer on your side if you’re going to have any hope of winning your claim at all.
Reach out to our office for a free case review today.
See also:
Fibromyalgia in New Jersey’s Workers Compensation Claims
