Tribunal finds employer's handling of accommodated role aggravated PTSD
A British Columbia paramedic has won his workers’ compensation appeal after the province’s Workers’ Compensation Appeal Tribunal (WCAT) found that an employer’s handling of an accommodated role aggravated his permanent post‑traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
In the decision, Vice Chair Melissa R. Clarke allowed the worker’s appeal and varied a Feb. 28, 2025 Review Division ruling that had upheld WorkSafeBC’s denial of a 2024 mental‑disorder claim.
“I find that the worker is entitled to compensation under section 135 of the Act for a mental disorder, specifically aggravation of his permanent PTSD (which the Board had accepted under the 2020 claim),” Clarke wrote.
The worker – a long‑serving primary care paramedic – had an accepted PTSD claim from 2020, recognized by WorkSafeBC as a permanent condition with associated restrictions. The Review Division had previously concluded there was no new Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM)‑based diagnosis under the 2024 claim.
Clarke rejected that reasoning. She held that the existing permanent PTSD diagnosis satisfied the statutory requirement in section 135(1)(b): “I am satisfied that the worker’s permanent PTSD diagnosis under the 2020 claim is sufficient to meet the criteria under the Act,” she wrote.
Clarke added that she was “not persuaded that a worker with a permanent DSM diagnosis under a prior claim...
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