A Northland man has slammed the Accident Compensation Corporation (ACC) for suspending payments to him because of what he terms a "speculative" opinion from a psychiatrist.
Craig Barnett, of Dargaville, was told last month that his weekly payments for psychological symptoms would be frozen because his present mental condition was not caused by a personal injury sustained 13 years ago.
Mr Barnett was kicked by a horse in 1999 and his claim for a head injury was accepted by ACC, which provided him with a range of support, including weekly compensation, psychological help and vocational training.
Recently, he made a new claim for a mental injury resulting from the 1999 accident and was referred to Auckland psychiatrist Rudi Kritzinger for a assessment. In his report, Dr Kritzinger said he could not come to a definitive conclusion, but said his most benign interpretation would be that Mr Barnett's injury resulted in a post-concussive syndrome which was temporarily associated with significant life changes.
"Following his [Mr Barnett's] recovery, there has been a continued tendency to interpret all symptoms as injury-related and, by this time, he had become financially dependent on ACC which inadvertently reinforced reporting and attribution biases," the report said.