Employer case studies
South Staffordshire and Shropshire NHS Foundation Trust
Occupational therapist Jo Probyn talks about how they worked with a professionally qualified staff member who was diagnosed with bi-polar affective disorder two years after they joined for the trust.The staff member's job involved working with individuals diagnosed with mental ill health and supporting them towards recovery, social inclusion and employment.
Becoming unwell
"We talked frankly during supervision about the diagnosis and treatment options, ultimately encouraging time off to recover and to enable the organisation to follow the Trust's policies promoting positive mental health and sickness absence."Keeping In touch whilst off work
"Whilst they were off work we worked as a team with my line manager co-ordinating the process. I, the occupational health nurse and my line manager attended a clinical meeting with the employee, a member of their family and their clinical team to discuss what would help a return to work and to agree who would take responsibility for all the agreed actions."Planning the return
"We agreed to re-deploy to an area of work with less stress and reduce potential for difficult emotional situations, which all agreed may decrease the risk of relapse.""Return to Work was added to the Care Programme Approach Care Plan and the individual and I created an employment relapse plan. This identified barriers to a return, what would keep them well at work and what they needed to do to stay well and, who they needed to share this information with."
"We identified reasonable adjustments such as; time of for clinical appointments, recognition that they would undertake one task at a time, an increase in support and more time to complete tasks as the medication had the effect of slowing them down. We also recognised that one of the side effects of the medication was difficulty in getting up and driving to work early, so we negotiated flexible start and finish times."
"Following liaison with Occupational Health and the clinical team, we developed a very phased return with the opportunity to meet work colleagues and settle in before undertaking the job. We liaised with Human Resources about adapting the Sickness and Absence policy to allow a longer phased return."
Staying well in work
"We put into place the relapse plan and the reasonable adjustments described above and regularly reviewed progress as a whole team to enable their return to part time work. Used supervision to discuss and make any changes. The employee also used their colleagues for support and to maintain their health."
