White Paper

Removing Barriers to Recovery: A Primer on Psychosocial Treatments for Injured Workers

Psychosocial factors impacting injured workers’ mental and behavioral health can be a barrier to recovery. Addressing concerns early with psychosocial treatments can positively affect a claim.
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White Paper Summary

It’s been well established that mental and behavioral health conditions – whether occurring after an injury or already present – can lead to longer recovery times and poorer health outcomes. In fact, 47% of workers’ comp stakeholders said they see psychosocial/mental/behavioral health as a barrier to recovery for injured workers.

However, diagnosis of a mental health condition is not the only circumstance in which intervention may be beneficial or even needed in the overall management of an injured worker. Among injured workers, there are often psychosocial factors at play. These “yellow flags” are characteristics that shape an individual psychologically and/or socially and act as barriers to recovery from physical injury.

Addressing these concerns early – starting with behavioral health screenings within a few weeks of injury – can positively affect a claim and health outcomes. For example, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), a type of psychotherapy, has proven to be effective in reducing the length of sick leave and facilitating return to work.

For more content like this from Healthesystems visit their RxInformer clinical journal website.

Healthesystems is a leading provider of Pharmacy Benefit Management (PBM) & Ancillary Benefits Management programs for the workers' compensation industry.