September 2020 – Anxiety & Depression

Treating Depression & Anxiety
We are working with our clients to take The Claim Lab Psychosocial Questionnaires one step further. Rather than just stop at using data and statistical models to identify claims where a mental health intervention is required, we are now looking to assist in the application of the most appropriate treatment.

This has become particularly important with the COVID-19 Pandemic and the focus on the increasing numbers of mental health claims.

CBT “Lite”
Our Questionnaire data has indicated for some time that there is much untreated depression and anxiety in claims where a mental health condition is not the primary diagnosis, but now this factor has been multiplied by the pandemic. 

Typically claims operations have an intervention path for the most severe mental health claims, but many of these claimants are still functioning and are not yet severely impaired. However, they do need some support to get through their depression or anxiety, as going untreated, this condition will significantly prolong the duration of the claim.

So, The Claim Lab is developing a cost effective self-help process, thus moving us from analysis and risk identification to treatment!

The traditional Cognitive Behavioral Therapy process is still highly appropriate for the most severe cases of depression and anxiety, but there is a need for this alternative… a CBT ’Lite’ if you like!

Why is it so important to address depression and anxiety?
We have been lucky enough to have been given a preview of a new academic paper, through our work with the Council for Disability Awareness, which looks at the effect of a mental health condition on the claim duration. I suspect it would come as no surprise to claim professionals that any mental health condition will lengthen recovery time, but by how much? This paper suggests that a co-morbidity of a mental health condition doubles the duration of a disability claim… The paper by Gaspar, Jolivet, Wizner, Schott, Dewa and the American College of Occupational and Environment Medicine is due to be published this month.