A paper published in 2014 concludes that the stresses associated with making a workers compensation claim make recovery less likely.
The authors conclude:
Many claimants experience high levels of stress from
engaging with injury compensation schemes, and this experience is positively
correlated with poor long-term recovery. Intervening early to boost resilience
among those at risk of stressful claims experiences and redesigning compensation
processes to reduce their stressfulness may improve recovery and save money.
Those of us who are a little more cynical may have come to different conclusions
such as the lack of incentive for many people to return to work and being paid
not to work is a powerful driver.
I wonder how many academics actually have much understanding of this complex system.
I may have mentioned before that in one year there was a major outbreak of mental health
in the Victorian police Force as the number of WorkCover claim halved. It was probably
because the superannuation schemes suddenly became much more generous and
more accessible and the number of superannuation claims made more than doubled during that year.
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