Workplace injuries can
have mental health costs
Physical injuries often come with
collateral damage — depression, PTSD
BY LIZ BERNIER
PHYSICAL INJURIES are certainly costly and disruptive to the
workplace in and of themselves, but in many cases they can cause a
secondary injury as well.
There is a solid link between physical injuries and psychological
injuries such as depression or post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD),
according to Therese Richmond, professor of nursing and associate
NEWS BRIEF
Safety Reporter
Canadian
www.safetyreporter.com
April 2016
Recovery > pg. 2
ONTARIO PROPOSAL PRESUMES WORK-
RELATED PTSD IN FIRST RESPONDERS
Post-traumatic stress disorder, first responders,
and presumed entitlement to benefits: What
does it mean for Ontario employers? pg. 3
WORKER FIRED FOR NOT WEARING
PPE GETS TO PUT IT BACK ON pg. 5
Supervisors and co-workers felt
worker's safety violation was minor,
so termination was excessive: Court
PHYSICAL AND MENTAL INJURIES
CONTRIBUTED TO LACK OF
WORKER'S CO-OPERATION
Benefits discontinued after
worker didn't co-operate with
return-to-work efforts
pg. 7
INSIDE
Educational assistant assaulted by
student wins mental stress benefits
Frequent assaults by special needs student were
traumatic and not an expected part of the job: Tribunal
BY JEFFREY R. SMITH
PHYSICAL ABUSE from a
special needs student is beyond
what is expected in the job of
an educational assistant who is
entitled to benefits for mental
stress, the Ontario Workplace
Safety and Insurance Appeals
Tribunal has ruled.
The worker was hired by an
Ontario school board in 2001
and became an educational as-
sistant (EA) for "intensive sup-
port for low incidence-high risk
needs (developmental disabili-
ties, physical disabilities)" a year
later. This category of EA quali-
fied the worker to assist students
with physical disabilities requir-
ing assistive devices such as feed-
INJURIES AT WORK MAY
INCREASE RISK OF LOSING
ONE'S JOB: U.S. STUDY
(Reuters Health) — A new U.S. study
of nursing home workers finds that
within six months of an injury, work-
ers are more likely to lose their jobs.
Compared to uninjured col-
leagues, workers who were hurt
were more than twice as likely to
be fired in the next six months.
Workers who had been injured
multiple times were also twice as
likely to quit their jobs in the next six
months, the study found.
"The results demonstrate higher
risk of being fired but we don't have
data to say why exactly workers are
being fired. We can only say that
their risks are higher," said lead au-
thor Cassandra Okechukwu of the
Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public
Health in Boston.
In general, workers are most like-
ly to be injured during the first few
months in a new environment, the
study team notes in Occupational
and Environmental Medicine. Job
turnover increases the chances an
injured worker will be injured again
in a new workplace.
People injured more than once
were more likely to choose to leave
their jobs than uninjured workers,
while people injured only once
were more likely to be fired.
Credit:
Shutterstock
Breakdown > pg. 8
PM40065782