Compassion in compensation medicine

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Abstract
Background: Workers’ compensation was created as an inherently compassionate social institution: a collective response to the human, health, and economic consequences of work injury. This founding purpose can be obscured by administrative complexities. Objective: To re-establish compassion as a foundational principle in workers’ compensation medicine and provide practical ways to operationalize this in system design. Methods: This commentary examines relevant historical and contemporary literature to inform the principle of compassion in workers compensation, synthesize the ideas, and develop recommendations for system design to better integrate the historical principles of Canadian workers’ compensation to enhance worker experiences, return to work, and compassionate communication. Results: The historic compromise embodies compassion through collective protection, no-fault support, and security following injury. That purpose can be made visible in modern systems through understandable communication, transparent reasoning, timely coordination, and differentiated supports for workers facing language, literacy, psychological, or disability barriers. Implementation requires resources and evaluation rather than an assumption of zero cost. Conclusions: Compassion is not an optional addition to workers’ compensation but a return to its foundational purpose. Stewardship and compassion can be mutually reinforcing when reforms are co-designed and evaluated for worker outcomes, equity, administrative burden, and long-term system costs.

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