Many people in New Jersey suffer from mental health problems due to their occupations. Saying, “this job drives me crazy” isn’t always just a joke. Highly stressful working conditions and traumatic experiences at work can lead to short-term mental health crises as well as long-term mental health illnesses.
Is mental health covered by workers’ compensation?
Increasing awareness about mental health issues is allowing more workers to receive mental health coverage under workers’ compensation insurance. However, not every state has personal injury and employment laws that cover mental health treatment. In New Jersey, workers are entitled to compensation for work-related mental health injuries.
What types of mental health injuries are compensable?
Certain occupations, like firefighters, EMTs and other first responders, are known to be at high risk for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). If a worker develops PTSD from work conditions, this would most likely be compensable.
PTSD is not the only compensable mental health condition, though. A highly stressful work environment could lead to severe anxiety or depression. In other cases, a worker may have sustained mental health injuries during a work accident that left him or her physically injured.
Mental health injuries can slow recovery of physical injuries
If you were involved in a serious workplace accident, your physical injuries may have left you out of work for weeks or even months. During this recovery time, it’s normal to feel a lot of stress from lost income and depression from the lack of activity. You may have undiagnosed mental health injuries that are prolonging your recovery time. The good news is that you may be able to obtain compensation for mental health treatment.