Background: Research findings from previous studies suggest that there are certain proportion of workers may develop psychiatric symptoms after experiencing major occupational injuries and such events quite often become an obstacle to their “return to work” at later stages. Up to the present time, there is no qualitative study investigating the risk factors influencing occupationally injured worker s’ psycho-social health and their adjustment to the life after occupational injury.Purpose: Identifying the risk factors affecting injured workers’ psycho-social health and assistances needed in the process of recovery from occupational injury.

Methods: Injured workers who were hospitalized for 3 days or longer and received Inpatient Hospitalization Benefit of Occupational Accident Medical Benefits from Labor Insurance between February 1 and August 31, 2009 were recruited at 3 months after injury, as the stage one study. The psychological symptoms were measured using a self-reported questionnaire Brief Symptom Rating Scale (BSRS-50) and an acronym (SPAN-C) for four items: Startle, Physiological arousal, Anger, and Numbness. The participants with high score of psychological symptoms would be invited to participate in face to face interview. At stage 2, a total of 7 injured workers participated in an in-depth interview within 1year after the occupational injury. Results: Six themes were identified from the interviews: 1. the physical suffering, 2. unattainable workers’ compensation, 3. workplace injustice, 4. employment insecurity, 5. lack of employers’ social support, and 6. exacerbating pre-existing injury after a premature return to work.

Conclusions: Workers did not receive reasonable and proper assistances from the government tended to develop psychological and mental disorders. With the findings of this study, the authors suggest that relevant government agencies may re-organize/re-integrate community resources and establish “single window services” for occupationally injured workers, to lead a more reasonable life in the community.