Occupational Health?

[NeedMenInWhiteCoats]

Ladies,

If you can give me any hints as to what an occupational health referal entails I would be very grateful. My work have offered me one but I wonder how long it will be before they start demanding, if they can. I have had a day of with a stress related problem plus a few more last year that are pregnancy related.

How does the referal work?
Can work demand that I have it?
If I don't take it, is there anything work can do?
Are there any pitfalls I should be aware of?
Will it disclose my medical records to work?

Any information you can give would be realy helpful.

Unusual to have one for such a low level of absence, but some companies have a policy of offering OH support immediately if there is a stress problem. Which is a good thing really.

It would normally be an appointment with an OH practitioner to discuss your absence, in particular how it relates to work, and establish what if any support and assistance work should be offering you. Normally it would be for people who are actually absent so the conversation would be about facilitating a return to work and adjustments that need to be made.

It might involve access to medical records, yes.

You can refuse, yes. Occupational sick pay may depend on cooperation though, and for long-term or problem absence disciplinary action may come quicker or be worse if someone won't enable the company to get OH support for them.

Is there anything in particular you are concerned about?

I work in admin in occupational health. as I understand it, it is voluntary - usually they will ask you to sign a consent form.

Also, you don't have to give access to medical records - again it's voluntary.
It is only usually necessary where some degree of proof is required - e.g. if somebody is applying for ill-health retirement.

Also, you can ask for your medical conditions not to be disclosed. For instance, someone with MS may not want their employer to know that. But the occ health practitioner could say "mrs H has a medical condition which causes her difficulty with hand writing and typing".

Some companies just have a policy whereby if you've had 4 instances of sick leave in a certain time, you'll be referred to occ health. If you've been off with stress, they may just wish to establish whether it's work related or personal. If work related, they may want to address the issues making you stressed.

If there's nothing wrong with you now, it's likely occ health will just say you had legitimate reasons for absence and you don't have any medical conditions affecting your work.

If somebody does has a medical condition that affects work, occ health can usually help by suggesting ways a role could be changed so that somebody could manage. This is put in writing and as such tends to be actioned.

IME it's nothing to be worried about. It would probably just entail a chat to ensure you are feeling ok.

Where I work, we have a policy of referring staff to occupational health after a certain number of absences OR when an employee has cited work-related stress as a reason for their absence. It is expected that they should attend, and people usually do, but I don't know if we could actually force them.
However, in the case of persistent absences, I imagine that a refusal to cooperate could potentially lead to disciplinary action.

I have referred three members of staff to occupational health in the last year - one because of back and neck problems that seemed to be getting worse when she was in work, and the other two for work-related stress. In all cases, the employees were asked to sign off the report before it came to me, and no health details were disclosed which I didn't already know from their sickness certificates. However, in one case, the referral eventually resulted in a medical suspension for someone who had severe mental health problems.

Generally, I think people tend to find occupational health to be quite supportive, and not at all scary! :)

When I've sent staff to them we have always gone by the recomendations given it working hours or ajustments. The feedback I've had from staff is they were nervous but it wasn't as bad as they thought. You will get a copy of the report as well as your employer.

Where I work there would also be a stress risk assessment booked for you. Search on the Health and Safety Executive website for full details of what this entails, as it might help you in your discussions at work even if your employers don't offer you one.