- Post-traumatic stress disorder
- Recurrences (compensable injury)
The worker was granted entitlement to benefits for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) due to traumatic job duties as a police constable. On May 7, 2021, the worker's mental health worsened, and he stopped working. The worker sought entitlement to benefits for a May 7, 2021, recurrence of PTSD.
The Panel allowed the appeal.Leading up to May 2021, the worker was actively in treatment for his compensable PTSD, and treatment was expected to continue until at least June 30, 2021. The worker's PTSD was significantly impacting his functioning, including missing work shifts. After May 7, 2021, there was a significant mental health deterioration. Dr. Akbari stated the worker had "suffered a serious setback in his mental health recovery due to multiple recent tragic events" including the death of a police colleague, the attempted suicide of another, and the loss of his mother and aunt due to COVID-19.The Panel found that the worker's deterioration was clinically compatible with the compensable PTSD injury. The worker's psychologist described it as the worker was grieving as well as having his trauma symptoms seriously retriggered. The dominant concern throughout the worker's mental health decline continued to be his PTSD. Although grief was a new concern, depression and PTSD were both documented back to 2018.The deterioration was a symptom and consequence of the compensable PTSD itself. The colleague incidents were not significant new incidents that caused the worker harm and overwhelmed the compensable connection. Rather, they were examples of how the worker reacted to incidents through the lens of having compensable PTSD, due to policing duties associated with death. In addition, the worker's grief due to his family deaths did not overwhelm the contribution of the compensable PTSD. The worker's mental health decline, in the face of incidents that he could weather before he developed PTSD, was a symptom and expression of his active compensable PTSD. In other words, the worker's compensable PTSD was responsible for the worker's reaction to the notable incidents.