Over the past decade, workers’ compensation schemes across Australia have undergone a significant shift. While physical injuries remain prevalent, psychological injury and complex, multi-factorial claims are rising at a faster rate than any other category. These claims are typically longer in duration, higher in cost, and more difficult to resolve without specialised support.
This change is reshaping how employers, insurers, and rehabilitation providers must respond to injury management and return-to-work planning.
What Is Driving the Increase in Psychological and Complex Claims?
Several key factors are contributing to this shift:
- Greater awareness and reduced stigma around mental health has increased help-seeking behaviour
- Workplace psychosocial hazards such as high job demands, poor role clarity, interpersonal conflict, bullying, and organisational change are more widely recognised
- Post-COVID workforce pressures, including burnout, hybrid work, isolation, and staffing shortages
- Ageing workforce, with more comorbid physical and psychological conditions
- Higher reporting and diagnostic accuracy of conditions such as adjustment disorder, anxiety, PTSD and burnout
Psychological claims now account for a disproportionate share of time lost from work and scheme cost, even though they represent a smaller percentage of total claims lodged.
Why These Claims Are More Complex to Manage
Psychological and complex claims often involve:
- Fluctuating symptoms and functional capacity
- Delayed recovery patterns
- Perceived or actual workplace conflict
- Fear-based avoidance of the workplace
- Identity loss linked to work incapacity
- Reduced confidence and self-efficacy
- Concurrent physical health conditions
Unlike many straightforward physical injuries, there is rarely a single treatment pathway. Recovery is influenced by organisational culture, leadership response, perceived fairness, and the quality of communication during the claim.
What This Means for Employers and Insurers
This shift requires a move away from purely compliance-driven return-to-work processes toward person-centred, psychologically informed rehabilitation models. Key implications include:
- Earlier psychosocial risk screening
- Greater reliance on vocational and psychosocial rehabilitation
- Increased collaboration between treating doctors, employers and rehab providers
- More flexible return-to-work planning
- Stronger focus on workplace mediation, adjustments and graduated re-engagement
Without these elements, psychological claims are more likely to become long-term, adversarial and costly.
The Role of Modern Occupational Rehabilitation
Today’s occupational rehabilitation providers must be equipped to manage:
- Psychological injury
- Secondary psychological impacts of physical injury
- Workplace conflict following injury
- Vocational identity disruption
- Capacity building and confidence restoration
At ELEV8, our rehabilitation model integrates vocational counselling, psychosocial rehabilitation, medical coordination, return-to-work planning and employer engagement, ensuring injured workers are supported holistically, not just clinically.
Managing a psychological or complex workers’ compensation claim?
ELEV8 provides specialised occupational rehabilitation for psychological injury, complex claims and challenging return-to-work scenarios.
For all service enquiries, please contact us at hello@elev8consulting.au or via our 1300 number. To submit a referral, please complete our online referral form.
References
- Safe Work Australia – National Workers’ Compensation Statistics
- National Return to Work Survey
- Australian Institute of Health and Welfare – Mental Health and Work
- Heads of Workers’ Compensation Authorities (HWCA)
