ORLANDO, Florida — Robust employee wellness programs can have an impact on workers compensation claim outcomes, according to panelists speaking Wednesday at the Workers Compensation Educational Conference.
Increasingly, human resources professionals are being called to assist with comp claims, particularly in the mental health space by enlisting the help of an employee assistance program, said Carmen Penney, Collegedale, Tennessee-based manager of workers compensation for the transportation company US Xpress Inc.
“In my role, I’m dealing with a truck driver on a terrible day; they may have been in a motor vehicle accident and there could have been catastrophic things happen,” she said. “And so, for us, a lot of times it is the EAP (that provides) somebody that is just there and can listen and help that person.”
Marsha Wood, Chattanooga, Tennessee-based director of environmental, health and safety, occupational health and medical management for Rivian Automotive Inc., an electric vehicle manufacturer, said wellness programs that provide mental health services have been proven essential for her company.
Rivian is in the process of hiring its second licensed clinical social worker to work in its on-site clinic, she said, adding that there’s a waiting list for workers who want to talk. She said she believes improved services for mental wellbeing can help prevent injuries. And when they occur, having programs in place can “help the life of your claim directly.”
“Especially in the comp realm, you have employees that may be out on loss time, and they’re making less wages; their daily lives are affected financially and they’re stressed out,” she said. “That financial stress alone on wellbeing can be very critical to the recovery. And I’ve seen cases where that has gone severely wrong not by what the employer is doing inappropriately but more about what the patient is going through. The quicker we can identify that… we can get them connected to employee programs and just some routine intervention techniques.”
