Freud v. Workers' Comp
Monday, April 29, 2013 | 0
Should there be psychological consulting at the four-to-six-week period after a work comp claim? HECK YEAH! Not having a psych evaluation after a serious injury is a mistake. This can determine what mental factors are related to the illness or injury, or what is preventing the worker from returning to work as quickly as possible.
I bet you're wondering why psychology should be considered? The full spectrum of injury/accident and all that it encompasses is an example of a bio/psycho/social phenomenon. This trificta can cause a reaction or complication to the injury or illness. Hiding your head in the sand will not make the worker who needs your help go away.
Go ahead… Talk about the pink elephant in the room:
- Is your employee going to have surgery?
- Is it a complex surgery?
- Do you think seeing a psychologist before the surgery might be helpful?
- What is the cause and problems of delayed recovery?
Delayed Recovery
This often occurs when the employee is not responding as they should to prescribed medical treatment within a normal amount of time that the doctor would expect. Surprisingly, not very many employers think that perhaps there may be psychological factors involved which may impede recovery.
Here are some of the causes that can delay recovery time:
- Is the person an optimist or pessimist?
- What is the culture of the employee and how does it apply?
- Is money an issue?
- Is there stability at home?
- Is there a history of depression or anxiety?
- How will your employee cope with a lengthy delayed period of activity?
Situational depression can be a mitigating factor in recovery time. The employee may no longer think that they will get better. Often when depressed, workers stop interpreting what the doctor says correctly. That is why during a difficult recovery period, the HR/Supervisor should go with the employee to the doctor as a support, while also listening to what is being said.
Employers are getting one report from the physician and one from the worker saying something else. Not everyone has had the most idealistic childhood. An employee could have had a negative social, educational or familial history. One cannot thrive on just medical treatment when the psychological background is not addressed. Case in point, we have done everything medically possible, so why hasn’t the worker returned to work? Does this question arise a few times? This is a prime example of how a negative family background can sabotage a proper medical plan.
This article is for the smaller percentage of valued workers’ who do not improve as well as others. Why do some people go through a surgery/injury and come out with glowing results? Some go through the exact identical treatments and have an adverse reaction. Here is an excellent opportunity to have a psych evaluation and perhaps try to understand why this worker is not adapting to proper medical treatment. When this phenomenon occurs for weeks and months, there becomes an issue of identity disturbance. A patient who now needs transitional duty is asked these questions. “What was your job?” “What did you do?
These questions can paralyze a worker with identity crisis. When the ultimate happens, they may be put on disability, and the worker is then going to have to adjust to finding motivation to react to a whole new world. Here is where a psychologist comes in to play to fully transition the worker.
Psychological Mitigating Factors:
- Job dissatisfaction/job supervisor.
- Not being valued in their position.
- Burned out in their current position.
- Work with difficult coworkers.
Companies need to be educated about what to do for employee who are feeling this way. Psychologists are the next response team to help your workers get on their feet again! (No pun intended!) Let’s hope that more companies will use a psychologist that they know and trust. Two different fields, medical and psychology, working hand in hand will get the employee back to a faster recovery time.
Everyone wants to do the best for their company and their employees. If you would like to discuss this further, I would love to help you achieve your ultimate goal in workers’ comp. I am a specialist who can help you understand the difficult task of claim management.
Red Hollingsworth is owner of Buckner Co., an employer consulting firm in Salt Lake City, Utah. This column was reprinted with his permission from his Work Comp Wednesdays blog: http://wcwblog.com/.
Comments