WorkSafeNB 'mental health hazard,' say injured workers

A group of injured workers is calling WorkSafeNB, a "mental health hazard" and they want the New Brunswick government to order a public inquiry.

The group's members two nurses, a power-line worker, an office manager and a former sawmill supervisor said they feel beaten and defeated by their ongoing battles with WorkSafeNB, a system they turned to for help.

Life-changing injuries bring emotional baggage, and WorkSafeNB is an aggravating factor because it forces people back to work too soon, sometimes propped up with opiates, said the group's spokesman, Tom Barron.

Change will only come when injured workers speak with a collective voice, he said and urges others to speak up and order a public inquiry.

"There needs to be something in place for these injured workers and their families to begin to express how they're being harmed psychologically, economically, emotionally, within the communities that they live," said Barron, a retired labour leader who often gives his time for free, helping workers appeal when benefits are denied.

Andrew Allaby has lived with chronic pain since a sawmill accident in 2002.

"I was looking after 23 souls at the Irving mill. Now the wife looks after everything. I don't do any business at all. I just can't. I am too emotional a lot of times," said Allaby.

Allaby's wife, Cindy, said the situation is "very stressful on us as a family unit."

Barron said WorkSafeNB's rehabilitation centre in Grand Bay-Westfield causes its own kind of damage.

Pushed to edge

Francine Cormier, a former nurse who wrenched her shoulder while turning a patient in bed, spent eight weeks in the rehabilitation centre. She said she was intimidated and ignored.

"When you get out of there, you are worse offthan when you went in," said Cormier.

After one very difficult day, she said she swallowed a bottle of the narcotic pain reliever Demerol.

And Cormier is convinced there are many other patients who have been pushed to the edge.

"I think it's a letdown that you have to struggle to let them know that you're in pain, that you're injured and sometimes that struggle is too much to bear."

She said she's talking about her experience because of how it affected her husband and son.And she wants to do it on behalf of all those who do commit suicide and their families.

In an interview with CBC News on Wednesday, Gerard Adams, thechief executive officerof WorkSafeNB,said he hadn't heard of such incidents.

"I don't know. I've never heard. I'm not aware," said Adams.

He said he didn't know how incidents like these could be tracked.