Trish Smith lodged multiple worker’s compensation claims due to anxiety and PTSD

Documents seen by The Daily Telegraph reveal Trish Smith filed three claims for ‘psychological injury’, with her NSW government employer.

The mother arrested over the stabbing death of her two young sons at their Blue Mountains home had lodged three separate worker’s compensation claims with her NSW government employer for “anxiety and PTSD”.

All the claims lodged by Trish Smith, 42, against her employer at the time – the Department of Primary Industries (DPI) – were initially dismissed, but were later settled on appeal.

The details are contained in a confidential departmental document sighted by The Daily Telegraph, which shows all three claims were for “psychological” injury.

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Details about Ms Smith’s dismissal from her job at Local Land Services – a branch of DPI – paint a picture of her legal battles.

Ms Smith applied to the NSW Industrial Relations Commission after her employer would not reinstate her despite her producing a medical certificate stating that she was fit for employment. The Commission attempted conciliation, but this failed.

Trish Smith with Russell and Ben, who were found stabbed to death in their home.

The Commissioner heard her first claim followed an “anxiety and panic attack”.

Ms Smith was referred to a psychologist who identified her “prior mental health issues” and a “recent increase in symptoms due to an incident at work”.

The psychologist said Ms Smith had reported having “a history of post-natal depression – anxiety” and reported symptoms consistent with “adjustment disorder with anxiety”.

While the department’s insurer dismissed the claim, Ms Smith won an appeal in the Worker’s Compensation Commission, and was awarded weekly benefits for seven months.

The Commissioner heard a second claim lodged in July 2019 was related to an injury alleged to have occurred after a “standard” meeting with a manager.

Nick, Russell, Ben and Trish Smith at church.

Ms Smith had been working two days a week at the time.

After the meeting, Ms Smith did not return to work for the remainder of the day, with documents citing “reactive anxiety” and a “flare in her symptoms” following her “returning to work after hospitalisation for her mental health condition”.

The claim was also dismissed, with Ms Smith lodging an appeal.

The matter was resolved, with Ms Smith receiving weekly compensation from September 2019 to 9 June 2020.

The third claim followed Ms Smith being given a letter initiating her medical retirement.

While the department dismissed her claim for psychological injury, Ms Smith was reimbursed $215.00 for two sessions with her psychologist “as a gesture of good will”.

The Commission heard Ms Smith had worked for Local Land Services since 2005.

However, she was diagnosed with anxiety in June 2017, and had been under continuous medical care for her condition.

As a result of her anxiety, she was deemed to have a disability, which required the department to provide her with “reasonable adjustments” in way her work was structured.

Floral and written tributes have been laid at the front of Our Lady of the Nativity Primary School where the brothers went to school. Picture: Richard Dobson

In ruling in favour of the department, the Commission declared its decision to dismiss Ms Smith based on her underlying medical condition was “a rational one” and was supported by the evidence available at that time.

In her evidence to the Commission, Ms Smith argued that she had “produced a high standard of work” and had “an excellent performance record”.

She accused the department of failing in its duty of care to provide a safe workplace for her when it sent its letter proposing her dismissal “without undertaking an appropriately detailed risk assessment”.

Ms Smith claimed the dismissal “continued the discrimination and bullying behaviours” which she alleged she had had experienced while employed.

In defending the dismissal, two government “health and wellbeing” staff detailed to the Commission the lengths they went to in accommodating Ms Smith.

Trish Smith was taken to Westmead Hospital under police guard in a stable condition with self-inflicted wounds after the bodies of her sons were found.

One gave evidence of the “extensive efforts” the department made to manage Ms Smith’s “work-related” and “non-work-related” absences, including the “numerous plans” made for her to resume work after her absences.

There were “extensive interactions” with Ms Smith and various doctors about her fitness for work, the staffer said.

Greater Sydney Local Land Services general manager Sharon Elliott told the Commission that two of Ms Smith’s managers had been so overwhelmed by the time taken to be her manager, “and the intensity with which she responded to their communications with her”, that they had requested the applicant be managed by another person.

Ms Elliott revealed that by December 2018 the department was considering dismissing Ms Smith because it could not provide a safe workplace for her managers, while she was also not performing the inherent requirements of her job.

Ms Smith is under police guard in hospital with self-inflicted wounds after her sons Russell and Ben, aged 9 and 11, were found dead.

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