Were one to ask the average working professional in Glendale if their job was a source of stress in their life, they likely would get an answer in the affirmative. The expectations, deadlines, and standards that come from one’s career will almost certainly (at some point) generate a certain amount of tension. Couple that with the fact that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that 71 percent of American adults have claimed to have experienced at least one of the symptoms of stress, and one can see how depression and anxiety can be a very real problem in the workplace.
The question then becomes whether or not depression that is due to one’s job is compensable through workers’ compensation benefits. The professional safety journal EHS Today reports that workplace depression-related issues cost companies as much as $51 billion annually. Included in that is indeed workers’ compensation payments made to help employees seek treatment for depression. Such benefits may be made available as long as both medical and legal causation of one’s work-related depression can be established. Medical proof comes from clinical documentation provided by one’s physician or psychiatrist. Legal causation is established when the representative of a state’s workers’ compensation agency reviews one’s case and determines that there are indeed factors indicating that their depression could be a byproduct of their work.
Making this link is much easier if one’s depression is due to not being able to work because of a work-related injury. In such a situation, benefits can be extended to help one seek mental health treatment while (and after) their physical injuries heal.