“I Hit My Head on the Job!” | Concussion at Work? How to Protect Your WSIB Claim and Your Recovery

A woman rests her head in her hand at a dining table with a laptop, a mug and a pill bottle, a walking boot on one foot and the city outside the window.

A concussion does not always show. You can look fine while your head aches, lights feel too bright and words slip away mid-sentence. That gap between how you look and how you feel is exactly why a careful record matters.

What should I do first after a head injury at work?

Get checked by a doctor or nurse practitioner, and tell your employer you were hurt. Concussion symptoms can show up or get worse over the hours and days that follow, so a check-up is worth it even if you feel all right at first. If your symptoms get worse, get medical care right away.

Once you receive health care for a work injury, your employer has reporting duties. Our article “My Employer Is Stalling!” | Your Employer Won't Report Your Injury to WSIB? What You Can Do Today explains them, and How to Fill Out WSIB Form 6 walks through your own report.

Does the WSIB cover concussions?

Yes. The WSIB runs a mild traumatic brain injury program of care. Its health care programs page says it is designed "for people with non-complex brain injuries/concussions to receive early care and help them recover faster."

To enter the program you need:

  • an allowed WSIB claim
  • a diagnosis of mild traumatic brain injury from a physician or nurse practitioner
  • to start within three months of your injury date

The WSIB's program questions and answers say people with an allowed claim for a mild traumatic brain injury must be treated through this program. That makes the three month window important. If your claim is still waiting on a decision, stay in touch with your case manager.

What does the concussion program include?

It lasts up to eight weeks, in two four-week blocks, and is usually delivered in person. The WSIB's program reference guide says it includes education about concussion, help managing your symptoms, and reassurance. It may also include a gradual return to activity, exercise therapy and hands-on therapy, including for the neck. Vestibular rehabilitation, for dizziness and balance, is added when it is needed.

Providers are listed in the WSIB's program directory, which you can reach from the same health care programs page.

What if I am not getting better?

If recovery is not going as expected, the WSIB says your provider must contact its clinical expert line. If you need more care after the program, your provider can ask about a referral to a specialty program or an occupational health assessment.

The reference guide notes that cognitive rehabilitation, vision therapy and mental health services sit outside the program and are referred to specialized services. Tell your provider plainly how you are doing. A daily record makes that conversation much easier.

What about going back to work?

Many people return gradually, with lighter duties or shorter shifts. Your health professional's restrictions shape what is suitable. Our articles on the Functional Abilities Form and modified work explain how that works.

What should I record each day?

  • Symptoms. Headaches, dizziness, nausea, sensitivity to light or noise, each rated for the day.
  • Thinking and mood. Memory slips, trouble focusing, irritability, low mood.
  • Sleep. How long, and how rested you feel.
  • Triggers. Screens, noise, driving, busy places, and how long you could manage each.
  • Every appointment. Who you saw and what you were told.

A concussion can make remembering harder. Writing things down the same day is how you keep track, even on foggy days.

Why use Hurt Square?

Because headaches, light sensitivity and lost words do not show on the outside, and they change from day to day. Hurt Square guides give you one place to keep it all.

  • Symptoms on the days nobody sees. The National Workplace Injury Recovery Guide has structured space for daily symptoms, appointments and what you could not manage at home and at work.
  • The Ontario rules, in plain words. The Ontario Workplace Injury Companion Guide explains Forms 6, 7 and 8 and how to object, step by step through to the Appeals Tribunal.
  • Made for hard days. 123 pages and more than 1,200 fillable fields that work on your phone, tablet or computer, in plain language. When your union representative, worker adviser or lawyer asks for something, it is already there.

Both guides, $39 until 22 November. The National Workplace Injury Recovery Guide and the Ontario Workplace Injury Companion Guide, with the discount applied at checkout. Bought separately: $63.99.

Get both guides

Who can help?

The Office of the Worker Adviser, if you are not in a union. It is an independent agency of the Ontario government, and its service to non-unionized injured workers is free. Its number for English service is 1-800-435-8980. If you are in a union, start with your union representative. A community legal clinic is another free route.

Read next

National Workplace Injury Recovery Guide

If your recovery were reviewed tomorrow, what would your record say?

The National Workplace Injury Recovery Guide is where your recovery gets documented, day by day. Symptoms, appointments, calls and costs, written while they are fresh. It works in every province and it stands on its own.

Both guides, $39 until 22 November. Add the Ontario Workplace Injury Companion Guide for the dates and rules that shape your recovery in Ontario, and the discount applies at checkout. Bought separately: $63.99.

Every figure in this article comes from a named source. How we check
Last verified: October 2026.
Workplace Claim Correspondence Tracker: Free Starter Edition

Keep every call, letter and decision together

Workplace Claim Correspondence Tracker: Free Starter Edition

A deadline board, call records, board decisions with the reason given, and proof of what you sent.

By entering your details, you agree to receive recovery tips and offers from Hurt Square. We use your first name and province to send you what applies where you live. You can unsubscribe at any time.

Free for your wallet: a printable card that tells you what to do first if you are hurt at work and what to write down.

Everything above is free.

If you want the whole system, it comes in two parts.

Two things decide how an injury claim goes.

What you wrote down. The National Recovery Guide is the daily record: symptoms, appointments, calls, costs, and what you can no longer do. It is the part a claim is eventually judged on.
Whether you did the right thing at the right time for where you live. Your Provincial Companion Guide carries your deadlines, your forms, your boards and your appeal routes. Ontario is not British Columbia. Generic advice sends people to the wrong form, and then to the wrong date.

Buy only the National Guide and you keep a perfect record, then miss a deadline nobody told you about.

Buy only your Provincial Guide and you know every date, with nothing written down to send.

You need both. That is why they are priced as a pair.

Bought separately: $63.99. Together: $39 until 22 November.

The discount applies automatically at checkout.

Get the Complete System for $39

Hurt in a vehicle instead? Start here. ·  Not sure which province edition you need? Find yours.

A fillable PDF that works on every device you own, for one payment.

Your Recovery. Documented. Protected.

You are not the only one

Somebody else has already had this exact week.

We closed comments on our articles, on purpose. A public comment box under a page about claims is a place where people give away details that can be used against them later, and we would rather not build that.

The Square is where that conversation belongs instead. Canadians hurt in an accident or on the job say what happened, read what happened to everyone else, and find out they were never the only one. Post under your name or not at all.

Say what happened, in The Square

Know someone going through this? Send them The Square.

Moderated, with house rules. Please leave out claim numbers, adjuster names and anything else that identifies your file. Something specific to your own claim is better sent to recovery@hurtsquare.ca.