Eliminating barriers for emergency dispatchers, nurses, care aides
Vancouver: Emergency dispatchers, nurses and publicly funded healthcare assistants will have easier access to workers’ compensation for mental-health disorders that come from work-related trauma. Regulatory changes that take effect on Tuesday, April 16, make this possible.
“These changes to the Mental Disorder Presumption Regulation are about fairness and support for workers who experience higher-than-average mental harm due to the jobs they do on behalf of British Columbians,” said Harry Bains, Minister of Labour.
Last spring, government amended the Workers Compensation Act to add post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and other mental-health disorders to the list of illnesses that are recognized as being associated with certain professions - specifically police, firefighters, paramedics, sheriffs and correctional officers. This recognition fast-tracks the claims process to access supports and compensation for those illnesses once a formal diagnosis has been made.
“I also acknowledged the need to look at other sectors for these presumptions, because certain professions are more likely to experience trauma on the job that can lead to mental illness,” Bains said. “Since last spring, we have been working with those sectors, and I am very pleased to expand the mental-health presumption to nurses, emergency dispatchers and publicly-funded health-care assistants.” Several factors were considered for each occupation, such as the nature of the work, potential for exposure to traumatic events, rates of workers’ compensation claims for mental illness in each type of job and financial impacts of extending the presumption to the occupation.
“This is good news for B.C.’S emergency call-takers and dispatchers,” said Oliver Grüter-andrew, CEO of E-comm, the largest 911 call centre in B.C.