More than Meets the Eye: Social, Economic, and Emotional Impacts of Work-Related Injury and Illness

Abstract

The impact of an occupational illness or injury on an injured worker can be severe. This study assessed several dimensions of the impact on a group of 50 injured workers, all patients at an Occupational Health Center. The dimensions assessed included aspects of access to health care, support from treating physicians in obtaining Workers' Compensation benefits, financial impacts, the role of attorneys and "Independent Medical Examiners," and the impact on mental health. Many reported that their treating physician did not want to become involved in Workers' Compensation, despite indicating a belief that the health condition was work-related. The financial impacts of a work-related diagnosis were particularly striking, with respondents reporting that they were burdened both with costs directly related to the medical care of their condition, and with coping with ongoing general expenses on a reduced income. Many respondents reported depleting savings, borrowing money, taking out retirement funds, and declaring bankruptcy in efforts to cope. Emotionally, respondents almost universally reported their diagnosis and related issues were associated with depression, anxiety, and loss of identity and self-worth. This study demonstrates how a work-related injury or illness can extend far beyond the physical impact for injured workers. Existing systems fail to adequately compensate or rehabilitate injured workers, leaving them to their own devices to deal with their losses, medical or otherwise.

The lived experience of fibromyalgia in female patients, a phenomenological study

“…The age difference was most likely one of the factors that made this incapacity even more disruptive and hard to resign to. Lax and Klein [17], looking at the impact of injury or illness on work, emphasized the role of an occupation in an individual's identity and self esteem. Moreover, Arnold et al [18] stated that the loss of former identity in fibromyalgia patients is strongly linked with loss of job.…”

Disparities by ethnicity, language, and immigrant status in occupational health experiences among Las Vegas hotel room cleaners

“…The higher percentage of workers with work-related pain who visited the doctor (62%) than who filed a claim (24%) indicates that physicians either may not consider that the pain is work-related [Plomp, 1993] or may not provide the necessary support in seeking workers' compensation benefits either because of the burdensome process [Lax and Klein, 2008] or the employer's dissuading influence [Higgins and Orris, 2002]. In focus groups, room cleaners stated that they sometimes were discouraged by medical care providers from reporting their injuries or illnesses.…”

Gender Differences in the Longitudinal Association between Work-Related Injury and Depression

“…We hypothesized that the distress related to litigation may act as an intermediate factor in the pathway from occupational injury to depression for male workers. A few studies have suggested that the very process of dealing with WC has a deleterious effect on the post-injury trajectory of injured workers [39,40]. In a Canadian study, the experience of litigation substantially explained the level of depression in workers who had suffered mild-to-moderate traumatic brain injury [41].…”