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Driving Superior Outcomes with Expert-Driven, Family-Focused Behavioral Health Support 

With the growing understanding that unaddressed behavioral health challenges can extend recovery and drive workplace injury costs as much as 75% higher,¹ the industry is paying closer attention to this critical aspect of care. In fact, claims professionals repeatedly cite untreated behavioral health as a primary obstacle to optimal claim outcomes.² Psychological challenges, including post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), depression, and substance misuse that are common in catastrophic cases—as well as social factors that impact behavioral health, such as family and economic instability—significantly increase the risk of complications, hospitalizations, secondary injuries, and suboptimal healing.

Why do these psychological and social issues often go unaddressed? Among the contributors are lack of workers’ compensation coverage for the behavioral health needs of families driving diminished caregiver support, challenges clarifying diagnoses, and difficulties identifying qualified providers utilizing evidence-based practice approaches. “Behavioral health and psychosocial issues affecting the home and family environment have a strong interrelationship. Understanding this correlation and overcoming these obstacles require the guidance of experienced behavioral and medical experts, combined with a whole-person approach that integrates families into recovery,” says Deborah M. Benson, PhD, ABPP, Vice President of Clinical Solutions for Paradigm.

For decades, Paradigm has led the industry in promoting psychosocial support through a team-driven model that places injured workers and their families squarely at the center of care. Kathy Galia, Paradigm’s Chief Clinical Solutions Officer, and a 2021 Business Insurance Woman to Watch honoree, recognizes that catastrophic injuries impact more than the injured worker—they devastate the entire family. “Superior outcomes are only possible through an evidence-based model incorporating behavioral health for the injured worker and family into every step of the care plan.”

Established and integrated behavioral health expertise

Effective behavioral health care must treat the whole person and the whole family, while coordinating with ongoing medical treatment. Psychosocial factors such as home and family dynamics are deeply interconnected with recovery—yet are very often disrupted by the injury. “Injured workers and families need support from people who not only understand these complexities, but have experience implementing an effective and clinically cohesive response,” explains Dr. Benson. This is why Paradigm HERO Catastrophic^® Outcome Plans feature fully integrated behavioral health professionals collaborating with medical experts.

Paradigm Management Teams include Community Support Specialists, dedicated and specially trained behavioral health professionals who offer support, coping strategies, and resources. Teams also have access to a roster of board-certified psychiatrists and neuropsychiatrists, psychologists and neuropsychologists, rehabilitation counselors and applied behavior analysts who promote positive psychosocial adjustment and address potential barriers to recovery.

Because different catastrophic diagnoses have unique behavioral impacts, Paradigm assigns specialists based on their background and ability to solve the issues connected with each diagnosis. As just one example, brain injuries can seriously disrupt established family structures as they adjust to life with someone who is, in many ways, a new person. Dr. Benson highlights the expansive and diverse range of focused expertise that can be applied to different cases:  “Clinicians such as Hassan Moinzadeh, MD, PhD, a physical medicine and rehabilitation specialist and licensed clinical psychologist; and Steven Moskowitz, MD, a physical medicine and rehabilitation specialist with significant pain and addiction expertise, are representative of the Paradigm Medical Directors we have working on catastrophic cases with significant behavioral health overlay.”

Paradigm’s commitment to behavioral expertise also includes a network of top providers. “The catastrophically injured workers we serve have access to behavioral health providers employing evidence-based methodologies and outcomes-driven treatment to address psychological disorders, cognitive disorders, substance use disorders, and chronic pain,” explains Galia.

Behavioral health management in action