ICBC and funded counselling
WorkSafeBC and psychological injury: how counselling gets covered after something happens at work
· 5 min read · Ravi Teja, RCC
WorkSafeBC accepts claims for mental health injuries, not only physical ones. Funded counselling runs through an accepted claim, and the diagnosis supporting that claim must come from a psychiatrist or a psychologist rather than from a counsellor. Here is the order the steps actually happen in.
Workplace injury is generally pictured as something physical, and the claims process is easier to understand when there is an injury you can point at. Psychological injury is claimable too, but the sequence is different from the one people expect, and misunderstanding that sequence is where a lot of time gets lost.
Mental health injuries are claimable
WorkSafeBC accepts mental health injury claims. Broadly, these fall into two situations: a reaction to a traumatic event witnessed or experienced at work, and a reaction to significant work-related stressors over time. The first is the more familiar one, and it is common in emergency services, healthcare, transport and retail — anywhere a person may be present for something serious as a condition of doing their job.
The diagnosis has to come from a psychiatrist or a psychologist
This is the step that catches people out, and it is worth being direct about. A mental disorder claim has to be supported by a diagnosis from a psychiatrist or a psychologist. I am a Registered Clinical Counsellor. I do not diagnose, and I therefore cannot be the person who provides the assessment that supports your claim.
That is a limit of the role rather than a limit of this practice, and knowing it early saves weeks. If you are at the stage of establishing a claim, the assessment is the thing to pursue first.
Where counselling fits
Counselling generally follows an accepted claim rather than starting it. Once a claim is in place and counselling is authorised, sessions are part of recovery rather than part of the evidence, which changes the room considerably. You are no longer trying to demonstrate anything.
If the claim is refused, or you are still waiting
Claims take time and not all of them are accepted. Two things are worth knowing meanwhile. Extended health benefits, if you have them, are unrelated to the claim and can be used immediately. And support during the waiting period does not prejudice anything — nobody is required to be untreated in order to be believed.
The most common cost of a workplace psychological injury is not the claim being refused. It is the months spent not seeking support while waiting to find out.
Working out where you are in the sequence
If you are not sure whether you are at the assessment stage, the claim stage or the recovery stage, that is a reasonable thing to bring to a free consultation. Establishing which one you are in is usually a short conversation and it determines who you should be speaking to next, which may not be me.