Work-related stress, depression and anxiety accounted for 39% of all work-related illnesses in 2013/14, according to recent statistics by the Health and Safety Executive. A total of 11.3 million working days were lost within the same period, particularly amongst health professionals, those employed within education and health and social care.

Mental health should be equally as important as physical health and your employer has the exact same duty of care to protect you from psychological injury or illness. If you have suffered from a psychological injury which was caused or worsened by your working environment, you may be eligible to make a psychological injury at work claim.

A psychological injury or illness is a type of personal injury and is more often than not a consequence of the demands placed on someone at work, or as a result of trauma.

While an employer cannot predict how you may have been affected by whichever circumstances lead to your injuries, they have a legal duty of care to safeguard you as best as possible.

There are several factors which could contribute to a psychological injury, such as:

• Confidence issues after scarring from an accident
• Being involved in, or witnessing, an accident
• A breakdown in interpersonal relationships
• Harassment or discrimination
• An increase in workload
• Organisational changes
• Feeling undervalued
• Uncertainty at work
• Low pay

Sometimes it might be that there are a number of staff who feel the same and are having difficulties in carrying out their jobs, which might signal a serious organisational one that would need investigating.

Should an employee disclose these feelings, it is important that an employer treats their concerns with the utmost importance and respect, and reports it. Failure to do so can be viewed as a breach of their duty of care and make them liable for future negligence claims made against them.

• Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)
• Occupational stress
• Depression
• Anxiety

Once it can be proven that your employer knew, or ought to have known that you were exposed to a risk of psychological injury or illness, and they failed to take reasonably practicable steps to prevent or reduce such risk, there may be strong grounds for a psychological injury at work claim.

Experiencing a psychological injury or illness we understand can be debilitating for both the victim and their  loved ones, especially when they have been neglected by an employer.

We have dealt with enough cases of psychological injury to know that contacting a solicitor may be the last thing on your mind but you deserve to make a psychological injury at work claim for compensation.