Work wanting access to medical records, can't sleep...

[SociableAutist]

I'm currently signed off work due to autistic burnout. I'm trying my best to recover and get back to normal but am so stressed and worried by work that it's impeding my recovery.

Work now want access to my medical records. Thing is, this will be no use to them whatsoever. I was diagnosed with autism as an adult a few years ago, and there's nothing on my notes about it apart from the referral and diagnosis. There are, however, some deeply personal and private things in my record that I don't want my employer having access to.
What makes this worse is that I work for an individual, so it's not a separate HR department or anything.

My usual GP is on maternity leave. The others at the surgery don't know me, and there are no services or support for adult autism. There's no useful evidence or information in my medical records about this.

Things are so difficult and stressful in my life atm. I'm struggling to go on at all, and this is making it worse. I'm so upset that they won't let me recover and are just making things worse.

Can I refuse permission to access my records? Is this too much for them to ask?

Yes I get that it comes with the territory. So it's hard - it's hard for anyone - to just stop worrying. But simply based on realism, worrying about it isn't going to change anything that will happen, good, bad or indifferent. But it will make it harder for you to recover. What is appropriate or inappropriate is a judgement call, but it also isn't necessarily negative. For example, in some parts of my workplace you have to declare any medications you are taking because we have to becertain they don't impact on the role. Equally, a manager might ask that question because they don't understand that medication for some conditions isn't a "thing".

I don't know whether this will help or not. But I will say it anyway. I will not try to tell you that all employers are good employers. They most certainly aren't. But here is the thing. At some point, for good or not, every single employer has a cut off point at which point they will not support sickness absence any longer. That doesn't make them bad or "evil" in itself. We don't know if your employer has reached that point or not, but absolutely nothing - nothing at all - will change what happens when / if they do reach that point. The only control you have here is to do what you can to get better. If you can convince yourself to let go of what you cannot control - your employer - then that is one less thing to worry about. Co-operating with your employer might help you, but not doing so will definitely not help you.

I am fairly sure that you are a capable and intelligent person. So you don't need anyone to tell you that in the end almost all employers wil dismiss someone who is off ill for an extended period of time. How long that period of time is depends very much on individual employers and terms and conditions. But there is nothing at all you can do about that. And you already know it. What will be, will be. Hopefully things will work out for you. But if they don't it is not nice, but it also isn't the end of the world. Life has ups and downs and you will get over this one.

Thank you @Banditqueen12

An employer can't just keep paying for you to stay home, when there is not medication helping, no therapies being tried, no time line for it ending, and you don't want to be approached about it in the meanwhile , and not working with your dr or a therapist to address coping with your burn out.

But therapy or medication for autistic burnout don't exist. It just takes time to recover. There isn't a treatment, as such.

They won’t be asking for full records. They should have sent your GP a letter with a list of questions, which your GP will answer, and you will see the report and give permission before it’s sent.

They won’t be asking for full records. They should have sent your GP a letter with a list of questions, which your GP will answer, and you will see the report and give permission before it’s sent.

Sorry posted too soon. It will just be to check confirmation of your diagnosis. Make sure you see and agree the report first.
Ask for a referral to occupational health (your employer will need to buy into service ) so they can advise on any reasonable adjustments required.

It’ll probably be a report and not records which employers are entitled to ask for, in order to ascertain if/what can be done to support you in returning to work. You are their employee, you being off has an impact, and they are entitled to try and manage the situation.

You don’t have to consent but if you don’t then they may need to make decisions about your employment without the benefit of medical advice.

@SociableAutist but you can’t just expect them to leave you alone to recover. They have to be in contact with you, and making plans for you to return to work. And this is why it’ll be important that they get the medical reports… I’d expect them to engage an occ health therapist who will work with you on a return to work plan. And it’ll be really low stress and easy, like 2 hours a day or something, and gradually ramp up but at your pace. This is how you get to do it on a timeline you can manage, but you have to play ball because you absolutely can’t expect them to keep paying you and just leaving you alone in the meantime…

Put yourself in their shoes. What would you do if the roles were reversed?

@SociableAutist it might be worth asking for advice/shared experiences of work & autistic burnout on the Neurodiverse Mumsnetters board, if you've not already. Hope things are brighter for you soon.

What the employer has to do, and what I'd do, is follow the law and the contract. The op has a diagnosis.

Novel way to sweve the question. Says a lot tbh

I answered
The op is only in receipt is SSP and the role is being covered. The op has a diagnosis.

The employer can request medical report but has to follow the law & the contract terms.

The op is entitled to sick leave and has a diagnosis that means they have additional legal protection.

Says a lot tbh what does it say?

The employer can request medical report but has to follow the law & the contract terms

Absolutely - and rightly so

However "being left alone" completely isn't going to happen, and rather than hope for something unattainable OP might do better to develop strategies for coping with messages from work and engage with the plans they're clearly trying to make

Fortunately she also said they're keen to make adjustments, but there really is only so much that can be done and in the end her employment may become sadly untenable

Agreed. But a diagnosis doesn’t mean the employer has to sit back and do nothing until the employee feels well enough to return. They’re entitled by law to seek medical information from a health professional (with her consent of course) to see if there is anything that can be done to enable them to put in place reasonable adjustments to support them in a return to work. Of course the medical advice may be there’s nothing to be done than wait for time to pass until she feels better, but the employer is entitled to try and seek medical opinion on that instead of just the employee’s word and the limited information on fit notes.

The op is entitled to sick leave and has a diagnosis that means they have additional legal protection.

That is an assumption. In only one or two circumstances - and autism is not one of them - is there any "additional legal protection" for having "a diagnosis". "A diagnosis" is not the legal definition of a disability under the Equality Act; and nor does the Equality Act really give much effective additional legal protection even if someone qualifies under the terms of the Act.

SIX WEEKS????? I'm not surprised your employer is annoyed.
Occupational health is not a department within your employer, they are independent. They're hired by your employer to look at your medical record to make sure that your diagnosis exists

No, I'm afraid you didn't. You responded with a bullshit non answer. Like stock automated response.

To me it says you're unwilling to give an honest answer to my question because it would conflict with your robotic wishy washy response. I.e the employer has every right to be aggrieved at the situation they find themselves in. The subsequent posters have said it far more succinctly than I could. But basically it would appear team sicknote and team employer have equal rights in these matters. Your non response made it abundantly clear which team you're on.

Of course the medical advice may be there’s nothing to be done than wait for time to pass until she feels better

Obviously we don't know what the medical advice will be, but OP has said exactly this herself

Trouble is, she also mentioned that she was off sick "for a long time" before this job, and now it's six weeks and counting and we're told no adjustments will really help

All this will present enormous challenges for the employer, and as said there may come a time when they decide the situation's untenable

The employer might feel extremely frustated - I've been on the employer side in a tiny business - but that is just their emotions which are not relevant in terms of what they can do.

You've put me on the wrong 'team', although I reject the idea of picking a side.

I deal with access to medical records, you can ask to view your records before they are released and then request that anything you don't want included is redacted. Has your employer explained why they want to see your records?

I'm not talking about their feelings. I'm talking about whether they are justified in taking steps to get their employee back to work. Or if its reasonable to be off work for a long period of time just because one has a "diagnosis" (your word not mine)

Hence the question. What would you do? So coco. Pray tell. What are you to do in such a quandary? Are you taking steps to get the employee back or are you you doing nothing and paying the sick pay AND for a full time replacement to do the job indefinitely?

you've stated you've "been on the employer side in a tiny business" so presumably you understand the inherent risk of paying 1.5 times more for a service than you need to... or can afford to.

At the start of the thread I linked to the acas process for requesting medical reports, that's all the employer can do WRT medical info at this stage.

Your post asked 'what you'd do in the employer's shoes' - I'd follow the contract I had with my employee. Do you know what the contract says? I don't. I may have missed an update about that.

Well it depends how long it is doesn’t it really

3 months or so - maybe
12 - 18 months - probably not

especially for a small employer who can’t readily absorb a long absence.