work & occupational health referral

[kittikat]

I have just returned to work after 10 weeks off with terrible anxiety/panic and associated symptoms. I am on a 'phased return' and my HR dept. are requesting that I attend their occupational health team. problem is this...I asked where it will be and its either central London or Romford...way too far out of my comfort zone and I went into immediate panic at the very thought of travelling to either destination :wacko: I have tried to explain this and asked for a home visit, they are saying I can attend with a friend or family member. They are not getting my point, I have some agorophobic symptoms and I really cannot go that far away from home. What can I do? My manager has been great, really supportive, but these HR people just don't get what is going on in my head and why I have been signed off work. I have no problem seeing occupational health, nothing to hide, I just cannot handle a journey into the 'unknown'. Shall I hold out on this or what? I am already in a panic at the very thought and need to know what my options are. Thanks for listening :blush: would appreciate advice ASAP.

[nomorepanic]

I had a similar thing when I went back to work after illness and they told me I had to go to Northampton to see them and they could not come to see me at home.

So I had no choice but to go to be honest.

I also had one come to see me at home but she was employed by the work's insurance company.

Can you not get someone to take you?

[kittikat]

Can you not get someone to take you?

Thanks for your reply....I can't just expect someone to take time off work to escort me also I don't know when and what location at the moment, I really can't do the underground. Don't they have to take my symptoms into account though?

[nomorepanic]

Ok well I saw two people

One, as I said was sent by the company's insurance company as they were paying my salary whilst I was off sick for 9 months. She came to my house

The second one was to see the company's own doctor/OC team and I had to travel to see him.

I would have thought they could come to you to be honest but I don't know how your company works with things like this.

I am sure someone wouldn't mind taking time off to take you though if they really had to.

The only other thing you can do is say No and if they want to see you they have to come to you but I have no idea what that would mean in terms of your employment with them.

[kittikat]

Thanks Nicola, I appreciate your advice. I hold my ground for now and see what happens. Also have GP appt. on Friday so will discuss with him too.

[nomorepanic]

I hope you get it sorted anyway - let us know

[feelingbad]

Hi

I had exactly the same problem as you with my employers. However agoraphobia is recognised as a disability under the Disability Discrimination Act and therefore if your GP advises your employers that you do have agoraphobia and are unable to attend an Occupational Health appointment my belief is that they have to make alternative arrangements which take into consideration your disability. This could be a home visit or telephone appointment with Occupational Health. I was visited by OH at home followed by a telephone appointment a couple of months later. Hope this helps.

[kittikat]

Thanks for the info, Feelingbad, should I ask my GP to write a letter? He has never put 'agorophobia' on my certificates but is aware that my anxiety has caused some of the symptoms. Do you think it is appropriate to ask him to do this? Is GAD recognised under the disability discrimination act? Thanks again :)

[annette1]

Hi Kittikat

Were you asked to complete a referral form with your employer? this gives oc health permission to contact your gp for a full health report. This report is then sent to your employer & HR dept, for some reason it is not sent to the employee & you have to request a copy from your employer.
Usually the first line of contact with oc health is a phone call to establish how they can help you & this should give you the opportunity to explain why it would be difficult for you to travel to see them, sometimes they will arrange to see you at work. your employer has a duty of care to you & that includes making adjustments to help you back to work.

I have returned to work this morning after 3wks off work & have been referred to oc health again because i've had more than my share of sick leave this year. I was diagnosed with ptsd in 2008 & am now having stress related illnesses that i cannot avoid.

we dont want to be ill do we, it really annoys me when you've worked so hard to get youself back to work & then they try to make life even more difficult for you.
Stick to your guns on this one Kitti, by law they do have to make reasonable adjustments for you.

I hope it goes well for you, keep us posted. x

[feelingbad]

Hi KitiKat

A disability under th DDA is the following definition:- a physical or mental impairment which has a substantial and long term adverse effect on a person's ability to carry out day to day duties so yes GAD should be covered. I went to my GP who was happy to write a letter and then my employers and the H R dept had to make suitable arrangements. The OH doctor I saw agreed that I was covered under DDA. Are you in a union at all cos they can support u in this too.

Good luck.

[kittikat]

Hi Kittikat

Were you asked to complete a referral form with your employer? this gives oc health permission to contact your gp for a full health report. This report is then sent to your employer & HR dept, for some reason it is not sent to the employee & you have to request a copy from your employer.
Usually the first line of contact with oc health is a phone call to establish how they can help you & this should give you the opportunity to explain why it would be difficult for you to travel to see them, sometimes they will arrange to see you at work. your employer has a duty of care to you & that includes making adjustments to help you back to work.

I have returned to work this morning after 3wks off work & have been referred to oc health again because i've had more than my share of sick leave this year. I was diagnosed with ptsd in 2008 & am now having stress related illnesses that i cannot avoid.

we dont want to be ill do we, it really annoys me when you've worked so hard to get youself back to work & then they try to make life even more difficult for you.
Stick to your guns on this one Kitti, by law they do have to make reasonable adjustments for you.

I hope it goes well for you, keep us posted. x

Thank you for your post. Yes I have completed the oc form with my line manager. My HR dept are very impersonal and send all correspondance through my manager. Why can't they just talk to me so that I can explain my anxieties about travelling? it's crazy eh?

I hope things are not too bad for you at the moment. As you say, we don't want to be ill and it really is annoying that they are adding to my anxiety while I am trying to get myself together. I have worked 3 full days this week on my phased return and thats been hard enough. I am not budging on this so I hope for a happy resolve soon!!

---------- Post added at 19:49 ---------- Previous post was at 19:43 ----------


Hi KitiKat

A disability under th DDA is the following definition:- a physical or mental impairment which has a substantial and long term adverse effect on a person's ability to carry out day to day duties so yes GAD should be covered. I went to my GP who was happy to write a letter and then my employers and the H R dept had to make suitable arrangements. The OH doctor I saw agreed that I was covered under DDA. Are you in a union at all cos they can support u in this too.

Good luck.

Thanks so much for that, I will ask my GP's opinion tomorrow. I am not in the union, refuse to pay their high fees as they seem to be pretty useless or my employer are very clever :shrug: I'm quite happy to fight my corner and the lovely people on here always give good supportive advice. BTW, I have worked there 18 years, hard working and reliable....count's for nothing at the end of the day eh? :mad:

[feelingbad]

I know how you feel. When it comes to mental health, employers just don't understand. I wish sometimes those people who think anxiety is just an excuse to get out of doing something could just spend one day feeling like we do and then maybe they would appreciate just how debilitating it is. You stick to your guns, if your employers want you to see OH they will have to arrange it so its possible for you to see someone where you are comfortable and not where you are going to be put under undue stress and pressure. They wouldn't expect someone with a broken leg to climb up stairs to a meeting.

And you're right the Union arent always that good. I've been waiting for a call back from them to ask their advice about a difficult time I'm having at work due to being off sick for 2 weeks with Anxiety and they seem to be ignoring me!!!

---------- Post added at 20:46 ---------- Previous post was at 20:46 ----------

I know how you feel. When it comes to mental health, employers just don't understand. I wish sometimes those people who think anxiety is just an excuse to get out of doing something could just spend one day feeling like we do and then maybe they would appreciate just how debilitating it is. You stick to your guns, if your employers want you to see OH they will have to arrange it so its possible for you to see someone where you are comfortable and not where you are going to be put under undue stress and pressure. They wouldn't expect someone with a broken leg to climb up stairs to a meeting.

And you're right the Union arent always that good. I've been waiting for a call back from them to ask their advice about a difficult time I'm having at work due to being off sick for 2 weeks with Anxiety and they seem to be ignoring me!!!

[chelley27]

Hi Kiti,

I was looking at this Disability discrimination act and yes GAD is covered. reason i looked is because i am now on my 4th week absent from work and my employers wrote me a letter asking to see me even though my sick note covers me for another week and a half, i couldnt understand why they wanted to do this and the very thought of what they might say made me even more anxious than i am already, they wanted me to go into work for a meeting, i told them i am not ready to do so and if they want to see me they can visit my home. they didnt like this idea so we left it at that till next week. i was worried they might fire me for having time off and they cant, we are covered under disability discrimination act so they cant force me or you or anyone to do anything, if you are not comfortable going hun you stand your ground and dont let them bully you. good luck xx

[kittikat]

Hi Kiti,

I was looking at this Disability discrimination act and yes GAD is covered. reason i looked is because i am now on my 4th week absent from work and my employers wrote me a letter asking to see me even though my sick note covers me for another week and a half, i couldnt understand why they wanted to do this and the very thought of what they might say made me even more anxious than i am already, they wanted me to go into work for a meeting, i told them i am not ready to do so and if they want to see me they can visit my home. they didnt like this idea so we left it at that till next week. i was worried they might fire me for having time off and they cant, we are covered under disability discrimination act so they cant force me or you or anyone to do anything, if you are not comfortable going hun you stand your ground and dont let them bully you. good luck xx

I really have stuck to my guns on this one...got a letter yesterday sending me for my appointment in central London. NO WAY!!! Went into complete panic mode at the very thought and called my manager in floods of tears...guess what, they have cancelled the appointment and are now looking into a home visit for me!!

---------- Post added at 17:57 ---------- Previous post was at 17:55 ----------

BTW..thanks for the info on The DDA..very interesting x

[chelley27]

aww thats brill news hun hopefully they can sort you an appointment soon. i hate it when employers do this, its almost a way of saying " i dont believe your gp, so you must see our own" stupid thing is, when i started this job i had to go for a medical with the employers doctor and everything came back fine.... so 8 yrs one how have i encountered all these problems? if they knew i was gonna be off this much they prob wouldnt have kept me on!! xx