Some injured workers suffering from chronic pain in B.C. have been so traumatized by the way WorkSafe BC (previously known as the Workers Compensation Board or WCB) treats them that they have attempted suicide.
It is bad enough to be injured at work and left with crippling chronic pain. But if that happens to you in B.C., you could also be subjected to long bureaucratic delays, disbelief from government staff and doctors, and disrupted income and psychological trauma on top of your initial injury, a study released this week suggests. Some of the injured workers profiled in the new policy brief from the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (“Work injuries, chronic pain and the harmful effects of WorkSafeBC/WCB compensation denial”, by Dr. Cecil Hershler and Kia Salomons, MSc.) were so hurt by their post-injury experience with WorkSafe that four of nine considered suicide and two made suicide attempts, Dr. Hershler told me in a June 8 conversation.
Hershler, an expert on chronic pain with 30 years experience, told me that the way WorkSafe BC responds to injured workers suffering chronic pain had “a truly catastrophic impact” on their lives.
The stories the nine injured workers (all patients treated by Hershler) told the investigators that their post-injury experience with WorkSafe included off-and-on payment of compensation, or no compensation at all, over long periods of time; long delays between initial termination of payments and the completion of appeals; lack of income and depletion of financial resources; mental health problems (including suicide attempts) and other health issues aggravated by the claims experience; wrestling with disbelief on the part of employers and WCB; frequent change of claims managers; undue pressure to engage in job search, even when injuries should have ruled out such requirements, and being cut off from the WorkSafe BC payments they were entitled to. One patient in the study had been struggling to get the chronic pain recognized for two decades. (continued)
The case managers tell you to let them know when you have seen a doctor or there is a change in your situation but when you try to contact your newest case manager they don’t return your calls. When you contact the case managers 2 supervisors they don’t respond either despite an unwritten rule that you should receive a call back within 48 hours. Trying to go higher requires going outside of wcb to the minister or premiers office who also do not return contact.