Break Down the Barriers

Hon. Jennifer Whiteside
Minister of Labour

Dear Minister Whiteside,

We write to bring attention to a serious injustice affecting nurses and other workers in BC, and call on you to make legislative and regulatory changes to create a fair workers’ compensation claim process for those experiencing a psychological injury.

Rates of psychological injury are on the rise in all work sectors – especially health care. Unfortunately, many workers seeking WorkSafeBC compensation for psychological injuries report significant barriers when submitting claims, barriers they would not face when making claims for physical injuries.

These experiences reflect the fact that WorkSafeBC handles psychological and physical injury claims differently. Change is needed. The current WorkSafeBC Mental Disorder Claim Policy must be amended to reduce the barriers to psychological injury claims.

Specifically, we are calling on you to:

Recognize the Reality

Nurses experience critical incidents and cumulative stressors at work that result in short-term psychological injury or a brief reoccurrence (“flare-up”) of a past injury that may not be listed in the Diagnosis and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) and may only last a short period of time. However, WorkSafeBC psychological injury claims currently require specialists to complete a medical report with a diagnosis contained in the DSM.

The Canadian Institute for Public Safety Research and Treatment notes several mental health conditions not currently included in the DSM can impact a person’s ability to work. These include compassion fatigue, complex trauma, moral injury, psychological injury and operational stress injuries. The addition of a short-term psychological injury category to the WorkSafeBC Mental Disorder Claim Policy that includes such conditions for absences up to 10 days and which does not require a medical report and DSM diagnosis would recognize the reality of the working conditions nurses and other health-care workers face.

Stop the Stigma

The words we choose matter. Labelling a worker as someone with a “mental disorder” can increase stigma and possibly deter them from getting the support they need to be able to return to work or stay on the job. Amending the WorkSafeBC Mental Disorder Claim Policy to use terminology less likely to reinforce mental health stigma – such as replacing “mental disorder claim” with “psychological injury claim – will help reduce barriers to access.

Reduce the Wait

A worker making a physical injury claim does not require a specialist diagnosis; primary care and general practitioners (and others) are able to submit the WorkSafeBC medical form required to approve a claim. However, a worker making a psychological injury claim requires a psychologist or psychiatrist to complete the form. This policy presents a challenge as most claimants must wait at least three months to see these specialists. Allowing general practitioners and primary care physicians to complete and submit WorkSafeBC medical forms for psychological injury claims would reduce this wait, improve the compensation process and experience, and could alleviate the bottleneck to see related specialists.

WorkSafeBC injury claim adjudication policies currently create unnecessary barriers that delay or prevent the approval of workplace psychological injury claims. These policy conditions also do not support the worker-centric claim experience reflected in the recommendations of Patterson’s 2019 New Directions report, one where people are treated with dignity and offered effective return-to-work services.

We look forward to watching the steps you will be taking to ensure the needed legislative and regulatory changes to make the WorkSafeBC psychological and physical claims processes as fair as possible.

Sincerely,

Adriane Gear
President, BC Nurses' Union