The Four Types Of Injuries Covered By Workers Compensation Claims In North Carolina

In general, there are four different types of conditions that workers’ compensation claims refer to. They are the following:

Accidental Injury

These are physical injuries that are the result of an event, like getting hit by an object, moment of overexertion, a slip and fall or another kind of accident.

Repetitive Stress Injury

These are physical injuries that result from needing to repeat the same movement repeatedly while performing your job. Some examples include hearing loss, pinched nerves, and carpal tunnel syndrome.

Mental Stress Injury

These are debilitating psychological conditions arising from employment. Some examples include depression, panic attacks, and post-traumatic stress disorder.

Occupational Illness

These are sicknesses that are a result of being exposed to an industrial environment. Some examples of occupational illness include acid reflux disease, mesothelioma, asthma.

In order to be eligible to receive benefits, a worker needs to prove that their work activities caused their condition to occur or aggravate a condition that previously existed.

Mental stress injuries are particularly challenging since the worker is required to prove that their stress is a result of the work environment as opposed to other circumstances in her or his life. That can require a high level of transparency regarding very private parts of a worker’s life. Often it is a lot easier to obtain benefits for mental injuries when they relate to physical injuries that were sustained at work. Whenever mental stress is claimed as an injury by a worker, it might be necessary to prove “outrageous and extreme” behavior by the employer is what caused their harm. This conduct may include verbal abuse, threats, and sexual harassment, which can be grounds for a lawsuit as well.