UK personal injury solicitor sets out how to claim compensation for a mental scar following accidents on the roads, at work, in industry or as a result of a crime of violence
A mental scar is another name for psychological injury, which can often happen after a traumatic event either an accident or criminal assault.
There are various different types of mental scar, but perhaps the most common is post traumatic stress disorder or PTSD. This is a recognised disabling psychological condition, which can be lifelong if not treated by the correct type of therapy.
Generally in the UK for a claim to be made for a psychological injury there must be a physical injury to tag the psychological injury onto.
For example, in a car accident claim if a vehicle driver or passenger is involved in a crash it is more likely the psychological injury will follow with physical injuries – the more severe the injury the more likely you are to have a psychological injury.
In other words a claim is more likely to succeed if the individual has suffered some other form of injury as well as the psychological injury.
It is still possible however to claim for purely psychological injury if a recognised disorder such as PTSD is officially diagnosed by an independent medical professional.
You should be aware that mental scarring or post traumatic stress disorder is quite frequently diagnosed incorrectly by GPs and other clinicians. For a true diagnosis of PTSD - a psychological assessment is necessary with strict criteria and tests to be met before a disabling PTSD condition will not be diagnosed.
Click post traumatic stress disorder claim to see what you must experience in an accident before suffering from PTSD and click symptoms of post traumatic stress to see how your life must be affected following the accident for a correct diagnosed of PTSD.
There are of course many other forms of mental scaring or psychological injury an accident victim might suffer from including: attachment problems, chronic anxiety, travel phobia and clinical depression. With each psychological condition certain criteria must be met to allow a correct diagnosis of each type of mental scarring.
If diagnosed with mental scarring, such as post traumatic stress – the amount you can claim can be quite extensive and can run in to tens of thousands of pounds.
The types of accident which can cause long term or chronic mental scarring include severe motor bike accidents, high speed car collisions, work accidents in which the employee feels out of control of the situation such as large machine accidents in which the life of the worker is threatened by a powerful machine, industrial accidents such as in the mining industry where a cave in occurs.
Mental scarring is quite common in crimes of violence such as serious assault.
Should you wish to discuss a claim for psychological injury with me in person or to have your potential claim assessed online free of charge click mental scarring solicitor.
