Worried About Sickness Level's

[pembrokestephen]

If you have a medical diagnosis of depression, you are almost certainly covered by the Disability Discrimination Act, which will give you some protection. If you are not a member of a trade union, get yourself down to the citizens' advice bureau, or get googling.

Take up the offer of counselling, and ask your gp to refer for counselling help, too. During that counselling, ask for help with regard to returningn to work.

*nods*

the 6 sessions CBT is pretty standard now as an EAP offering, as well as NHS counselling. From an ideal perspective, I'd say that CBT isn't the best option for all perspective, and that 6 sessions is often really not enough to deal with anything deep-seated, but, pragmatically speaking, 6 sessions of CBT can be a very useful "pick-me-up" that can get someone out of a difficult space and moving forward again. Odds, if I were you, and if you feel you're actually likely to need rather more intensive therapy than that, I'd speak to your doctor and see if there is any kind of referral he can give you for psychotherapy, or counselling in some other modality. I wouldn't hold out too much hope, TBH, as NHS resources in these areas are thin, to say the least (where I'm at, we've just had a meeting to discuss waiting lists, as the wait for psychodynamic psychotherapy is now officially "infinity" - ie, there's nobody coming off the list because there aren't any therapy hours available for the non-acute list).

But your area may be different - there are often local initiatives, for example.

Also consider private therapy - many of the charitable organisations offer cheap therapy, which can be very helpful, and a lot of therapists also offer sliding fee scales, so if you're hard up they may well see you for less money.

(this isn't an attempt to drum up business, just a thumbnail sketch of what's out there, and how to get it! )

 

[Guineveretoo]

What is CBT?

 

[pembrokestephen]

What is CBT?

Cognitive Behavioural Therapy - a therapeutic approach that's about identifying behaviours and "errors of thinking" and - cognitively - addressing them. The therapeutic equivalent of taking paracetamol for a headache rather than trying to find out why you had a headache in the first place - ie., perfectly valid, but perhaps not helpful for repeat headaches.

 

[Guineveretoo]

You might consider, another time, that your audience (i.e. the people on this board) wouldn't necessarily know the abbreviation! I knew about cognitive behavioural therapy, but I didn't immediately think of it when you used the abbreviation, and this thread is about someone who has problems, rather than an academic debate

 

[Orang Utan]

CBT is very well known G!

 

[pembrokestephen]

You might consider, another time, that your audience (i.e. the people on this board) wouldn't necessarily know the abbreviation! I knew about cognitive behavioural therapy, but I didn't immediately think of it when you used the abbreviation, and this thread is about someone who has problems, rather than an academic debate

*nods* It had been all over another thread lately, and that slipped my mind. It's a fairly well-known abbreviation, though (in my view, a little TOO well-known - people can be quite evangelical about their CBT experiences!), so I might have had a reasonable expectation of people knowing what it meant.

Nonetheless, apologies...

 

[Guineveretoo]

CBT is very well known G!

Yes, I know it is, but my point remains. This thread is about an individual in trouble.

Besides, I like being patronising to pembrokestephen!

 

[Thora]

Oddworld - when I worked for a uni the procedure for dealing with sickness took months and months and several formal meetings/warnings before they could sack anyone!

 

[pembrokestephen]

Yes, I know it is, but my point remains. This thread is about an individual in trouble.

Besides, I like being patronising to pembrokestephen!

Always a good idea to play to your strengths, eh, guineveretoo?

 

[sheothebudworths]

Always a good idea to play to your strengths, eh, guineveretoo?

Takes one to know one etc. etc.

 

[pembrokestephen]

Takes one to know one etc. etc.

*eyebrows*

 

[sheothebudworths]

*eyebrows*

*'tach*

 

[Spark]

If you have a medical diagnosis of depression, you are almost certainly covered by the Disability Discrimination Act, which will give you some protection.

you may be covered, but not necessarily so just because you have a medical diagnosis, it would depend on how long it continued, how severe it was and how it affects you and what you can and can't do because of it. However, if your employer is sensible it would consider making adjustments for you to protect itself, which it sounds like it is doing by allowing you a certain amount of flexibility with your working hours.

On a more general note, though an employer could fairly dismiss someone because of a poor attendance record they could not just do it without any warnings first. A normal procedure would be to try and manage the person's attendance, for example by setting an acceptable attendance level and if the person doesn't acheive that giving them a verbal warning, then move on to written warnings and only dismiss if after giving several warnings their attendance still hasn't improved. The whole procedure should take months really.

 

[oddworld]

My referral for CBT is via the NHS and not via work. I've an assessment tomorrow and then should be having between 8 and 16 sessions.

I've already had a series of 6 sessions of counselling via my GP's surgery, this wasnt CBT though.

My work arnt offering me CBT either , its just six sessions with a counsellor I would assume the same set up as my GP surgery.

I've fought for this CBT and really want to do this.