Hi Elmo
I'm an Occupational Health Case Manager. I'm basically doing the job of an Occupational Health Advisor and have been for the last year or so. I'm also a nurse.
I think I know the company you may be applying to! Feel free to PM me if you like.
In terms of my day-to-day work, I mainly do Management Referrals. Basically an employer will refer their employee to us due to a health condition which is making it difficult for them to do their job to the fullest capacity. It's our job to discuss their difficulties and make recommendations to them and also the employer, to make it easier and to support them.
This is normally a 30-60min phone/video call where you're asking about the medical background...diagnosis, meds, ongoing specialist input, ongoing symptoms. Then you'll discuss their difficulties in their role.
Recommendations could be suggesting various equipment (or a referral for a specialist ergonomic assessment if quite complex). Devising phased return plans, recommending tasks they should be excluded from etc. What we say should be backed up so I include links to resources that I've got the information from.
Pros -
Speaking to lots of interesting people with different backgrounds.
A sense of accomplishment when helping people.
Being able to advocate for the employee if they don't like asking for help.
I work exclusively from home.
I get to research some conditions in-depth, that I wasn't as clued up on before.
Helping the employee be more proactive with their health (from the perspective of them not knowing what other support/techniques etc are out there).
Lots more.
Cons -
A lot of the time it's an internal issue, such as workplace politics and it's leading to WR stress. We can address the symptoms of stress but not the internal issues.
Some cases can be very complex, or about a dozen conditions. Some employers ask numerous additional questions which all have to be answered. Sometimes meaning you're working after 5pm.
In my company, we do 5-6 cases a day. We have an admin team who book these appts on for us, and who deal with everything before and after the appt. We work on an autonomous basis and the LM checks in periodically, but if there's no issues then we can just get on with our role.
I like to "prep" a few days in advance...so I look at upcoming cases and if there's anything I'm not familiar with then I do lots of research on the condition and potential reasonable adjustments.
I also process some pre-employment health questionnaires for different organisations. Most can be passed through fine. Other times I need to phone the employee for consent to disclose their condition and make basic recommendations. For more complex cases I get in touch with the employer and ask that they make a referral for a formal assessment.
There's a LOT of mental health cases, as you can imagine. We're also seeing quite a lot of newly diagnosed Adhd and autism etc as more people are becoming aware of the conditions, and being formally diagnosed. But on the whole, every day is different!