New Insights: How A Worker’s Mental State Influences Injury Recovery

When workers are recovering from a workplace injury, there are psychosocial factors, mental factors, which can impede the recovery from physical injuries. Things such as a worker’s recovery expectations, fear of pushing too hard or performing activities that may restrict the benefits of physical therapy and hamper recovery, or even new negative feeling about their job and perceived injustices over how a supervisor or employer reacted to the injury. Can these “mental” factors prolong recovery and delay a return to productive work?  Guest Vennela Thumula, Ph.D., works at the Workers’ Compensation Research Institution – a nonprofit, objective provider of research and analysis – and is the lead author of this year’s WCRI report, “Importance of Psychosocial Factors for Physical Therapy Outcomes.” The role of psychosocial factors is increasingly being recognized as a major factor in recovery.  Understanding a clients’ mental state – and its impact on recovering – may be just as important as their injury diagnosis when it comes to achieving full compensation and helping them return to a full, productive life. Just because you can’t see an injury doesn’t mean it isn’t there. What you hear on this episode of Workers’ Comp Matters may change how you approach each client’s individual situation. Mentioned in This Episode: Workers’ Compensation Research Institute “Importance of Psychosocial Factors for Physical Therapy Outcomes,” WCRI, Vennela Thumula et al. Previous appearance on Legal Talk Network “Examining State Variations in Opioid Dispensation with WCRI’s Vennela Thumula”  Previous appearance on Legal Talk Network “2015 Workers Compensation Research Institute Conference: Cost and Impacts of Physician Dispensing Drugs” Keele STarT Back Screening Tool  “Multidimensional Screening for Predicting Pain Problems in Adults: A Systematic Review of Screening Tools and Validation Studies,” National Library of Medicine via National Institutes of Health