Invisible Wounds, Visible Costs

The ILO’s 2026 SafeDay Report and What It Means for Workers’ Compensation

Mental Health Gets Protection

New Jersey has taken a groundbreaking step forward in supporting the mental health of its first responders. Governor Phil Murphy signed Assembly Bill 5792, which requires workers' compensation to cover 12 hours of counseling for first responders following certain traumatic events. This legislation, now codified as P.L. 2025, c. 134, took effect on August 21, 2025, marking a significant expansion of workers' compensation benefits for mental health issues.

HHS Announces $103 Million from American Rescue Plan to Strengthen Resiliency and Address Burnout in the Health Workforce

 The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), through the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), announced the availability of an estimated $103 million in American Rescue Plan funding over a three-year period to reduce burnout and promote mental health among the health workforce. 

More than half of COVID-19 health care workers at risk for mental health problems

A new study suggests more than half of doctors, nurses, and emergency responders involved in COVID-19 care could be at risk for one or more mental health problems, including acute traumatic stress, depression, anxiety, problematic alcohol use, and insomnia. The researchers found that the risk of these mental health conditions was comparable to rates observed during natural disasters, such as 9/11 and Hurricane Katrina.

Mental health in the workplace: Health in the American Workplace Highlight

Experts take on the concerns most expressed by American employees in a poll done by NPR, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, and Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. The panelists also describe lessons learned from employers that cultivate healthy environments – to see if there are feasible measures to produce a more accessible, supportive, healthier workplace.

 Click here for You-Tube Video link.

Related Articles:

“Mental-Mental” Workers' Comp Claims ... Mar 18, 2013 ... Stress claims have been permitted under most of nations' workers' ... 1974, compensable mental injuries were limited to post-traumatic injuries, ... workers-compensation.blogspot.com

Overwork A Recognized Compensable ... Jul 6, 2012 ... Workers' Compensation claims have been increasing for mental stress claims as technology evolves and more workers are feeling more ... workers-compensation.blogspot.com

Early screening spots emergency workers at greater risk of mental ... Jul 5, 2016 ... Researchers wanted to see if they could identify risk factors that made people more likely to suffer post-traumatic stress (PTSD) or major ... workers-compensation.blogspot.com Stress in the Workplace: The Availability of Workers' Compensation Benefits May 09, 2005 6:24 PM Compensability for occupational diseases has become commonplace in most, if not all, jurisdictions throughout the country; however, the majority of claims filed allege physical rather than mental disability. The California Workers' Compensation Institute recently published their study of mental stress claims which indicated an increase of 430 percent in the number of claims filed from 1980 to 1986.

New York City workers have high pesticide exposure

Workers in New York have something else to worry about now...pesticide exposure. Today's post was shared by FairWarning and comes from www.environmentalhealthnews.org

New York City residents are more highly exposed to two types of widely used pesticides than the U.S. average, according to a new study from the city's Department of Health and Mental Hygiene. The findings “underscore the importance of considering pest and pesticide burdens in cities when formulating pesticide use regulations,” the researchers from the city's Department of Health and Mental Hygiene wrote in the journal Environmental Health Perspectives.New York City residents are more highly exposed to two types of widely used pesticides than the U.S. average, according to a new study. Population-based biomonitoring of exposure to organophosphate and pyrethroid pesticides in New York City. Environmental Health Perspectives http://ehp.niehs.nih.gov/1206015/ Organophosphate metabolites were measured in the urine of 882 New Yorkers, while 1,452 residents were tested for pyrethroid metabolites. Some organophosphates have been banned in the United States in recent years, although many are still heavily used in agriculture. Pyrethroids are used indoors and outdoors in sprays and bug bombs to kill fleas, mosquitoes and other pests. Among New Yorkers who were 20 to 59 years old in 2004, the highest exposed group had between two and six times more organophosphates in their urine...

[Click here to see the rest of this post]

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Long Hours Linked To Health Problems And Lower Productivity

Providing employees a chance to work
 in teams, and socialize during breaks
 actually increases productivity.
Photo Credit: Ambro / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

This is a guest post comes from  Deborah Kohl from Deborah G. Kohl Law Offices.

Many people are surprised to learn that mental disability claims due to workplace stress are compensable by workers’ compensation. Unfortunately, claims like these are on the rise as people work longer hours and feel the pressure of an increasingly competitive working environment. Recent studies on mental health and the workplace have led researchers to discover that, over time, conditions such as extended working hours and long periods of solitary workcan lead to decreased productivity, anxiety, and even major depression.

Employers can create conditions that are more supportive of mental health by taking simple steps like allowing workers to take breaks where socializing is permitted.

While it may seem initially counter-intuitive, studies show that in the long run, policies like these can lead to a more productive workplace. Here are a few tips workers can use to stay mentally healthy at work:

• Form friendships in the workplace. A positive relationship with even a single colleague can make a big difference in combating loneliness and depression. A friend at your office could provide an ear when you really need to release some steam or just take a mental break from an intense task.

• That said, make a distinction between work and leisure, and make time for social activities outside the workplace.

Overwork A Recognized Compensable Condition

The Japanesse courts have coined "overwork" as a soaring compensable mental health condition based on depression cause by adverse work conditions. The worldwide economic downturn has resulted in more demanding working conditions which have become adverse to employee health. Fatigue, caused by demanding schedules and long work hours has been found as a major contributing cause of depression for Japanese workers.

The Economist reported. "HARA-KIRI is a uniquely Japanese form of suicide. Its corporate equivalent is karoshi, “death by overwork”. Karōshi (過労死?), which can be translated literally from Japanese as "death from overwork", is occupational sudden death. Although this category has a significant count, Japan is one of the few countries that reports it in the statistics as a separate category. The major medical causes of karōshi deaths are heart attack and stroke due to stress.

....
For over 3 decades the Law Offices of Jon L. Gelman1.973.696.7900 jon@gelmans.com have been representing injured workers and their families who have suffered work related accident and injuries.

Related Blog Post

Workers' Compensation: The Compensabilty of Death By Overwork

Feb 28, 2012

The Compensabilty of Death By Overwork. Late in the 1970s, serious social concern over health problems due to long working hours has arisen in Japan. This report briefly summarizes the Japanese circumstances about long ...

http://workers-compensation.blogspot.com/

Related Articles

The New Mental Workplace Stress : Loneliness

Workers' Compensation claims have been increasing for mental stress claims as technology evolves and more workers are feeling more isolated and estranged from their co-workers by technology. Mental disability attributed to psychological stressors have for decades been recognized as a compensable event in workers' compensation.  Stress claims are on the upswing as employees work alone and the declining economy forced limitations on  employer generated social activity.

Stress in the Workplace: The Availability of Workers' Compensation Benefits

Compensability for occupational diseases has become commonplace in most, if not all, jurisdictions throughout the country; however, the majority of claims filed allege physical rather than mental disability. The California Workers' Compensation Institute recently published their study of mental stress claims which indicated an increase of 430 percent in the number of claims filed from 1980 to 1986.

The main causes for these claims include job pressures, harassment, and job termination. Other types of discrimination and stressors account for a small percentage of the claims filed.

Stressful Jobs Are A Killer

Workers exposed to stress for at least half their working lives are 25 per cent more likely to die from a heart attack, and have 50 per cent higher odds of suffering a fatal stroke. Also, blue-collar workers are more prone to such illnesses than executives. These facts are exposed in the ‘modern workers health check’ featured in the latest issue of TUC backed Hazards magazine out today (Tuesday).

TUC research shows that stress is Britain’s number one workplace health hazard. Now the ‘modern workers health check’ reveals worldwide evidence of employees being worked into the ground:

Workers with stressful jobs are more than twice as likely to die from heart disease.