Here’s a number every HR manager, RTW coordinator, and safety professional should be paying attention to:
Workers with mental injuries are returning to work at a rate of just 76.5%, compared to 90.2% for physical injuries.

The newly released 2025 National Return to Work Survey confirms what many of us have felt simmering for years:
The workplace mental health crisis isn't coming, it's already here.

The national Return to Work Rate has dropped to 88.9% (down from 91.6% in 2021). But the real alarm bell is this:
mental injury claims have more than doubled, jumping from 4.1% to 9.6% in just four years.

At the same time, the support these workers receive has gone backwards.
Workers with mental injuries are less likely to be contacted early, less likely to receive help before lodging a claim, less likely to have a return-to-work plan and far less likely to be offered modified duties.

The costs are escalating. And much of it is preventable.

The Real Problem: Employers Don’t Know What to Do With Mental Injuries

The survey reveals a confronting truth: many workplaces are willing, but not equipped.

• Only 58.3% of employers feel adequately trained for the RTW coordinator role
• In small and micro businesses, that drops to 44.8%
• Just 36.6% feel informed about treatment needs for mental injuries
• Only 24.3% encourage workers to lodge mental injury claims
• 35.9% doubt the legitimacy of mental injury claims

This is about a knowledge and confidence gap.

People are terrified of saying the wrong thing, crossing clinical boundaries, or making the situation worse.
So they default to the safest response they know:

“Time off until you’re 100% better.”

And that’s the approach that’s failing.

The Modified Duties Gap: Where Mental Injury RTW Falls Apart

This is one of the biggest contributors to failed returns.

Workers with mental injuries are far less likely to be offered modified duties:

• 26.1% for mental injury
• 48.1% for physical injury

The math is simple: they need accommodations, but they’re not being offered any.

Why?
Because employers don’t know how to assess functional capacity for mental injuries.

When asked why they couldn’t find suitable duties, 37.2% simply said “We don’t have suitable duties or hours.”

But in most workplaces, suitable duties absolutely do exist. What’s missing is a framework that helps employers understand what the worker can do right now, and how to adjust work accordingly.

Every week a worker remains off costs the system $1,887. Money that could be saved with functional conversations and basic adjustments.

The Myth Costing Employers Millions: “You Need to Be a Psychologist to Discuss Mental Injury”

Let’s dismantle this right now.

You do not need clinical expertise to talk about functional capacity for mental injury.

Just like with physical injuries, mental injuries show up in behaviours, tasks, and work demands. Not in diagnoses.

Two people with the same diagnosis (anxiety, depression, PTSD) can have completely different functional profiles.
Just like two people with a rotator cuff tear can have very different physical capacities.

Your role is not to diagnose or treat.
Your role is to understand:

“What can this person do at work right now?”
“What tasks are harder?”
“What adjustments would help?”

This is functional, practical, and within your scope.

Early Intervention Works (But We Have To Engage)

Workers contacted within three days have significantly better outcomes.

Workers who received help before lodging a claim are twice as likely to return to work successfully.

Yet employers wait longer to reach out to workers with mental injuries.
Why?

• Fear of saying the wrong thing
• Fear of breaching privacy
• Fear of upsetting the worker
• Fear of crossing clinical boundaries

But silence is far more damaging than a simple, supportive check-in.

By the time contact occurs, the window for early intervention has closed and the claim cost has escalated. We're now sitting at a median cost of $67,400 per mental injury claim.

The solution is not more clinical training.
It’s a simple, structured approach that gives employers confidence to make contact early.

The Questions That Make (or Break) a Return to Work

Most harmful conversations come from making assumptions or focusing on diagnosis instead of function.

Bad question:
“Everyone else is fine - why did you get so upset?”

This is judgemental, invasive, and unlikely to lead to constructive conversation (understandably).

Good question:
“Are there early warning signs we should look for so we can respond supportively next time?”

This is functional, respectful, and practical.

Your job is not to understand the mental injury.
Your job is to understand the work impact.

The "Time-Off" Trap

There’s a dangerous assumption held by many when it comes to mental injury. Time off is the best solution - or a requirement - until 100% capabity.

Not true.

For many workers with mental injuries:

• Routine helps
• Purpose helps
• Social connection helps
• Structure helps

Some deteriorate when completely disconnected from work.

The Employer Experience: Confusion, Delays, and No Clear Guidance

Employers are asking for:

• More responsive communication from insurers
• Clearer information about obligations
• Practical guidance on suitable duties
• Tools to help translate clinical reports into workplace action

A simple functional assessment framework becomes a shared language so that workers can describe limitations without discussing diagnoses and employers can identify duties without guessing.

What Actually Helps Return to Work

Keep it practical, keep it simple. Clarify your approach to:

1. Having a structured return-to-work plan
2. Offering modified or alternative duties
3. Early employer contact
4. Support before the claim is lodged
5. Access to appropriate treatment

A convolutied approach will just add to the chaos.

Five Practical Actions Employers Can Take Right Now

1. Shift from diagnosis to function

Stop asking what condition the worker has.
Start asking what tasks are easier, harder, or possible with support.

2. Make early contact. Even if you're unsure what to say

A simple check-in can dramatically improve outcomes.

3. Don't assume that “off until 100%” is the best approach

Recovery often happens while connected to work, not away from it. Don't assume either way.

4. Ask functional questions, not emotional ones

“What tasks are harder right now?”
“What would help you manage those tasks?”

5. Document accommodations as clearly as you would for a physical injury

Noise reduction, flexible starts, predictable workload, written instructions. Make the invisible, visible.

The Bottom Line: The Crisis Is Growing. But this Approach Is Simple

Mental injury claims are rising at speed.
Return to work rates are falling.
Costs are escalating past $1.18 billion annually and set to double by 2030.

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Some of this problem can be shortcircuted by simple changes in the approach to injury management.

Employers don’t need to become psychologists.

They need simple, structured tools that focus on function, capacity, and human connection.

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