Is Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) Covered by Workers’ Compensation?

Yes! Post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is considered an occupational disease which is covered under the North Carolina Workers’ Compensation Act.The North Carolina Supreme Court has required three elements in order to prove that a injury is an “occupational disease” including PTSD.  They are as follows:

(1)  The disease must be characteristic of and peculiar to the claimant’s particular trade, occupation or employment;

(2)  the disease must not be an ordinary disease of life to which the public is equally exposed outside of the employment; and

(3)  there must be proof of causation (proof of a causal connection between the disease and the employment). However, the worker must prove that the mental illness or injury was due to stresses or conditions different from those borne by the general public.

A good example of a post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) claim is as follows. A worker at a factory is working beside their co-worker.  An explosion takes place in the factory.  A sheet of metal is torn from the ceiling by the explosion and is hurled through the air striking the co-worker in the neck, decapitating the co-worker. The worker watches the head of the co-worker fall to the floor, killing the co-worker. The worker is now terrified from PTSD any time she is in a factory with other co-workers and hears any loud noise similar to an explosion.  This psychological trauma has been verified and diagnosed by competent physicians. We would all agree this meets the criteria for PTSD.

Another example of PTSD in the work setting is a bank tellar who is held at gunpoint during a bank robbery and now suffers from PTSD due to her fear of being robbed and held at gunpoint again.

To qualify for workers’ compensation benefits for a post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) claim the “three elements” listed earlier must be met. In this event, a worker should be entitled to workers’ compensation benefits in North Carolina.