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The Alberta Workers’ Compensation Board has approved more than 8,000 claims related to acquiring COVID-19 in the workplace, data shows
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A masked pedestrian crosses Center Street in downtown Calgary on Friday, April 16, 2021. Photo by Azin Ghaffari / Postmedia
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The Alberta Workers’ Compensation Board has approved more than 8,000 claims related to acquiring COVID-19 in the workplace, with hundreds of Albertans missing work weeks due to their illness, data shows.
The WCB report shows that by the end of April 2021, the board had accepted 8,288 applications for employees with novel coronavirus disease that arose in the course of their employment. About 11 percent of these entitlements resulted in workers missing working days more than 21, and about two percent being unemployed for more than 60 days.
These are workers with “long-term COVID,” a disease in which patients can have debilitating symptoms of the virus weeks or even months after their first illness.
On average, employees were on average 15.1 days away from work. The WCB also accepted 12 deaths for workplace-acquired COVID-19.
The Board developed a pilot program for working with long-term COVID patients at its Millard Health Rehabilitation Center in Edmonton that aims to provide specialized treatments for post-COVID symptoms that health professionals are still trying to fully understand.
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“The research we found indicated that the customer population really needed an interdisciplinary approach to addressing medical, physical, functional, and psychological challenges associated with long-term COVID,” said Kevin Drake, a service manager at Millard Health, the program that helped develop the program.
“We realized that we are resourceful at Millard Health, so we have put together a team to start a program that will enable us to work with and support this customer population.”
The program began with customer care in February and focused on workers with the most serious long-term illness of COVID-19.
Chronic fatigue, shortness of breath, and brain fog are among the lingering physical symptoms in long-term COVID patients. But the mental side of the disease is also important, said Drake.
“Really, their world has been turned upside down and a lot of these customers have felt really isolated and unsupported at home,” he said. “Your recovery process has been extended.”
Stimulation and sleep management strategies are among the program’s focal points, aimed at helping patients get back to everyday life and ultimately back to work.
The program is currently located in Edmonton, but also provides virtual assistance to others in Alberta. There are plans to expand the pilot program to clinics in Calgary and Red Deer.
Megan Beatch, manager of Millard Health, stated that the cost of the service is ultimately paid for by employers.
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“The first results were very encouraging. We have some customers who have recovered and are back to work, which is fantastic, ”said Beatch.
“We are learning more and more every day about how we can support their recovery.”
The WCB data also reveals where workers are contracting COVID-19.
About half of all accepted applications came from local government, education and health. Another quarter of the claims came from the manufacturing sector, while retail and wholesale jobs accounted for around nine percent of the claims.
Diane Roylance is a Calgary physical therapist who has seen long-term COVID patients referred to her practice by WCB. She said physical therapists had expected an increase in patients with persistent symptoms of COVID-19.
“We’ve been trying for a while to prepare for this tsunami based on what we’ve seen from other countries,” said Roylance.
“Variability is the biggest word for the people we see. You feel unwell after exertion. It is fatigue that is not just tired, but crippling fatigue that is unpredictable. They have heart rate problems, they have chest pain, they have nerve pain. They are struggling to carry out their daily activities and none of them are back to work yet. “
Some of these patients were originally diagnosed with COVID-19 six or seven months ago and never had to be hospitalized when they first contracted the virus, Roylance said.
She said COVID is not a disease that has been widely recognized in society for a long time, creating additional challenges for those recovering from it.
“Getting back to work is challenging at best, but especially when you can’t predict your symptoms,” said Roylance.
“There’s a stigma that people don’t have a cast, a tumor that’s been excised in surgery. It’s a silent handicap. “
Twitter: @jasonfherring
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