Work won’t send me to occupational health

Try Access To Work, they can help you look at what adjustments you might need:

www.gov.uk/access-to-work

Don't forget, it's not compulsory for employers to have OH and the vast majority don't. So there is no compulsion on them to send you there. The employer must make reasonable adjustments. So, you need to discuss that with your manager. Or HR.

But if your health is preventing you from doing your job then you probably should get off sick.

I think I would write an email directly to HR, not copying in your manager, and say that your disability is causing you difficulties at work and you would like an occupational health assessment. Don't mention it to your line manager. See what they say.

No, the GP won't just sign you off. When I had depression, my gp actually thought it would be beneficial to have me stay at work. Counselling was through the NHS.
My OH did nothing. They were just administrators who checked the law was being followed. However when my situation dragged on, OH did send me to a specialist to evaluate me. He was in their pay and worked for them, although I'm sure he didn't reveal anything we'd talked about to the company. Ultimately he decided it would be best if I didn't work for them anymore.

Fine, do that. Sorry for trying to help.

Can you ask for a stress assessment if work stress is impacting your MH? One of three outcomes is referral to OH, but OH aren't very useful in my experience when it comes to mental health. They're good to say get this adjustable chair to relieve back pain, but I work in a very stressful and emotionally difficult environment and they never seen to consider that impact on the employee

You seem to have a view of the remit of OH that is slightly at odds with how most of us understand them to function within a company and, more crucially, how they seem to function within YOUR company.

Pragmatically, what you want is to feel able to stay at work, right? So how about putting the concept of OH to one side for a bit and coming up with, say, 3-5 things you feel would help you achieve that. They could be:

I need to WFH at least two days a week.
I need to be in the office and seeing people.
I need to put a fixed lunchbreak in my calendar each day and to feel that management are supportive of me ringfencing this.
I need to set an alarm to go off to remind me to take regular screenbreaks.
I need further training in xyz.
I need support to resolve an issue with colleague X.

Are there any statements like that you can think of that would help where you’re currently at?

My experience of oh is as a manager with an employee who has disabilities and mh struggles who I want to support to enable her to reach her potential because when she’s well, she’s fab and I so want to see her do well.

OH provided a templated report saying she should have more days working from home (totally missing the point her homelife is dysfunctional and the main cause of issues. Honestly, it ticked an hr box and achieved nothing more.

I worked with her to put in place support, meet with her regularly, and also linked her with a pastoral mentor so she had emotional support at work without feeling like she was burdening me and enabled us to keep a one to ones more work focused (I didn’t stop talking about her well-being but it provided an alternative option). Her gp set up counselling after I encouraged her to be honest about her suicidal thoughts. Eap provided three counselling sessions which were really hard for her as she had to relive stuff to get the counsellor up to speed and then they said employees get 3 sessions per year so she’d used hers - that was ridiculous as it was finally starting to help on session 3 having built up their relationship and trust only for them to pull the rug (I escalated that to hr director).

So that’s a brief over view of my experience. Sadly I think you hope oh will provide some magical answer. You can speak to your gp, say you don’t want to reach the point when you need to be signed off and ask for help and advice. That will be far more valuable for you.

Another voice here saying that your Employee Assistance Programme is a good step to take. If you were to contact them and explain that you are experiencing challenges at work related to your mental health condition, but you don’t know enough about what reasonable adjustments might be made to know what to ask for to help, they should be able to refer you on.

The other thing I would do is try to do some of your own research about what might help, put together a proposal for you manager and ask if you can try something new to see if that works. Document everything so there is a trail showing your discussions and what is agreed. If they won’t refer you, try to come up with some ideas - what do you need from them?

As an example, someone I manage suffers from anxiety which they take medication for. We have partially returned to the office and I noticed that this employee was often late and was struggling to engage with some tasks, missed a few deadlines etc, I asked her what was happening as it was unlike her, and she revealed that she was finding it very difficult to use public transport at rush hour after Covid, and that her anxiety was becoming overwhelming- we agreed to change the times that she needed to be in the office so she comes in later, and finishes later to avoid the busy times. That has worked for her and her productivity has increased.

Other adjustments I’ve seen in the workplace to support employees with disabilities or mental or physical health conditions: reduced hours, reduced work load, redistribution of ‘high stress’ projects or clients for a short time or permanently, borrowed admin support (support from managers PA for a few hours a week), support to prioritise work load, mind mapping software, changing seats in the office, working in a quiet room, home working, moving teams, new managers….. any of those worth a try?

Writing a clear communication after every meeting with your manager is key too - always referencing your disability and what was agreed. I.e.

Dear Steve

Thanks for the meeting today - it was good to update you on my mental health condition and the fact that I’m feeling xxxxxx at the moment. I do feel I need additional support to manage my condition as I’m conscious that it may start to impact on my work. I know that you said that a referral to occupational health wasn’t appropriate at this time - but I wonder if we could consider xxxx to see if that makes it easier for my to perform at the high standard that you have come to expect from me,

(Or something like that…)

I'm guessing here. Did you declare a disability on starting the role? If so did you have an OH assessment to discuss any potential adjustments you might need to do the job?

None of us know for certain what EAP can offer you specifically, that's why you need to contact them, to find out what else they might be able to do.
The point is OH is there for the employers benefit, while EAP is focused on the employee instead, so more likely to help you

I made that judgement based on you saying you were unable to do your work due to lack of concentration due to poor mental health.
You are reaching out for help and I understand your concern around the discrimination point but your employer is in a difficult position if you won’t engage with the help available.

But what can OH actually do for you? What is it you want them to do?

If you are struggling to do your job, speaking to eap is a good first port of call.
They are more independent than OH, but won't sign you off either.
They may suggest seeing the gp , or help you ask OH for what you need.

Ah ok. Can you say if you're public sector or private sector? I think people can advise better if they know which.

If you are unable to work due to your health then you should be on sick leave and see your GP. From what you’ve said you absolutely need this and it is there for this reason. Is there a reason you’re so reluctant to go off sick?
The EAP would be your independent group who can speak to you about coping strategies and signpost to counselling. If it’s like my company you can reach out at any point and get this support. If you are on long term sick leave then OH may become involved but in my experience they don’t provide you with the support you are expecting. They will ask you the same questions - what measures could be put in place to get you back in work and being productive, but you seem to want support in figuring this out. EAP would be where I would send you for this.

What do you want from OH? Honestly I've never seen a useful report, they just repeat what the staff member told them.

Far more useful to see your GP

If you're NHS staff, as pp says, you can self refer to OH I think. Just find their email or phone number and ask them. If you are in a safety critical role and not performing to reasonable levels, get signed off by your GP until you are well enough to work again.