PTSD Therapy Compensation: Claim the cost of treating post traumatic stress

When you are involved in an accident and suffer personal injury, which includes post traumatic stress – we set out how to claim PTSD therapy compensation, for the treatment of your psychological injury.

Discover what PTSD is, the ease with which post traumatic stress disorder can be treated through cognitive behavioural therapy / CBT or eye movement desensitization and reprocessing / EMDR; why you should seek treatment as soon as possible; the best medical expert to diagnose and treat PTSD; how much compensation post traumatic stress disorder is worth and how to obtain specialist solicitor help online help.

What is PTSD post traumatic stress disorder?

Post traumatic stress disorder or PTSD is a severe psychological condition following an event such as an accident in which you feared for your life and had a sense of helplessness.

Can PTSD be treated through therapy?

’’Yes,’’ post traumatic stress disorder can be treated relatively simply and in a short time period by a medical professional with requisite training.

There have been suggestions in the past that counselling will assist, but the current medical thought is that counselling will only cause the accident victim to relive the accident and will not assist in treating a patient to recover from PTSD.

In essence post traumatic stress disorder is a result of the brain and subconscious not being able to cope with the severity of an extremely dangerous or perceived dangerous situation. The subconscious mind therefore has a loop which over time cannot be broken without requisite PTSD therapy and this loop is a subconscious loop in which the accident victim is unaware that they are attempting to avoid people, places or situations which remind them of the traumatic event.

There are primarily two types of therapy which are recognised to assist accident victims to recover from post traumatic stress disorder, which include:

PTSD Cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT)

Cognitive behavioural therapy can take many different forms, but if post traumatic stress disorder has followed from an accident or trauma then a clinician can be trained in trauma focused cognitive behavioural therapy, which will assist the accident victim in identifying the subconscious loops which are being experienced and finding a way to break the behavioural loops.

Quite often only ten one hour sessions are necessary, but the accident victim must also do work outside of the therapy sessions to allow an appropriate adjustment in behaviour .

Eye movement desensitisation and reprocessing / EMDR

EMDR is a very recent technique for treatment of PTSD – developed in America which uses eye movement to simulate the brains way of processing information as can happened when an individual is sleeping. This treatment does not require the patient to do any activities outside of the therapy session and has proved in America to be very effective albeit as of yet in the UK it is not widely recognised.

Which medical expert should diagnose and treat your PTSD?

Many medical experts exist who are experienced in psychological symptoms, but specific training is necessary to provide cognitive behavioural therapy or eye movement desensitisation and reprocessing. Even clinical psychologist or psychiatrists are not necessarily qualified to provide this treatment.

The general thought process is that a clinical psychologist is able to diagnose a psychological condition and recommend the appropriate treatment, but only a medical professional who is trained specifically with CBT or EMDR is able to actually provide the PTSD therapy treatment itself.

Quite often the additional qualification or training can take place over a one year period in addition to the health care professionals other expertise. It might be that a psychologist might seek to obtain the additional training or that a psychiatrist might seek to obtain the additional training, but it is not a pre requisite for those medical professionals to have this training for them to be considered doctors.

Why is it important to consider PTSD therapy when making a claim for compensation?

There is a duty in the UK law for any accident victim to do what is known as “mitigate a loss”. This in essence means that you should attempt to gain recovery as soon as possible, so that a claim is not exaggerated or unduly large.

It is therefore important that correct diagnosis of post traumatic stress disorder takes place and correct PTSD therapy treatment recommended.

Can PTSD therapy fall part of your compensation claim?

”Yes” – the cost of the treatment should be met by the party responsible for your accident, but the liability of the party responsible for the accident will not extend beyond the time period for conclusion of therapy so long as the cognitive behavioural therapy has resolved the post traumatic stress disorder.

If your PTSD is not resolved – you are perfectly entitled to claim for severe or extreme chronic post traumatic stress disorder and such sums can be quite extensive.

How much compensation can you claim for PTSD?

The amount of compensation you can claim for post traumatic stress disorder can vary, but inevitably will run into several thousands of pounds. If the condition is chronic it is likely that the sums will be tens of thousands of pounds.

To see examples of compensation amounts for PTSD click post traumatic stress disorder compensation amounts.

How do you claim PTSD therapy compensation?

To claim compensation for PTSD you should instruct a specialist solicitor. It is quite likely that PTSD will follow an accident in which there has been a severe personal injury.

It is therefore important that your solicitor is experienced in high quantum multi injury accident claims, whether this be a road traffic accident or work accident or similar serious accident.

Specialist solicitor free online / telephone help

We offer a number of specialist solicitor free help options – you can ask a question, receive a solicitor callback, call direct or have your claim assessed.