Job Retention Case Studies

Brian

Our Research and Evaluation Officer visited a local manufacturing company in order to conduct an employer survey on behalf of Bury EST. During this meeting, an employee was identified who could benefit from our intervention and an Employment Officer from Bury EST then contacted the company to discuss the situation.

The employee, Brian, was in his late 40's and had worked for the company for 20 years as a Work Study Officer. Some 9 years ago he became ill with a severe depressive illness and was off work, at that time for 18 months. He had now become depressed again, to the extent that he had been hospitalised recently and on sick pay for the past 18 weeks.

Both the company and Brian wished to retain his employment so a meeting was arranged between Bury EST, Brian and his wife. A further meeting was arranged between Brian, his employer, and Bury EST.

We looked at the treatment Brian was receiving from mental health services. He was attending group therapy but had requested one to one counselling. It emerged during discussion that Brian wanted help with personal problems, which were adding to the work-related pressures.

During further meetings, the following actions were agreed:

• Brian was allowed time off work to attend counselling sessions and continue with therapeutic treatment within the Health Services.
• Brian would return to work on a phased basis.
• Stressful parts of the job were identified and action taken to review working methods and amend the job role.
• Brian liaised with the employer when problems become too difficult to him to handle himself.
• Bury EST provided monitoring visits and continued support for both Brian and his employer.

Brian has now been back in full-time employment for over one and a half years.

Paul

A local manufacturing company was concerned about an employee, Paul, who had been off sick with a mental health problem for two months and was showing no signs of returning to work in the immediate future. An Employment Officer visited the company to discuss the situation with the Senior Personnel Officer. Paul was telephoned at home and agreed to meet with the Employment Officer.

Two issues emerged from this visit. The first concerned an alleged assault upon Paul whilst at work. This incident triggered previously hidden memories of childhood abuse for Paul; his father and other adult males within his family had sexually abused him over a long period of time. As a result of the incident at work, Paul found himself continually dwelling on these past events to the exclusion of everything else. He was getting very little sleep and his relationship with his family was deteriorating.

Paul also mentioned that he was a carrier of an infectious disease, hepatitis. He had disclosed this to the Personnel Officer and a supervisor at a recent meeting. Paul felt that he could not return to work in case he was ostracised by other workers.

Paul was also having paranoid thoughts and delusions. He believed his telephone to be bugged and that everyone was talking about him. He was very obsessed with life and death issues.

The Employment Officer met with Paul's Personnel Officer who was, in fact, more concerned about Paul's medical condition than the state of his mental health. He was worried about the implications of employing anyone carrying hepatitis.

A number of actions were negotiated with the employer. Referrals were made to other services and Paul was allowed additional sick leave. Both the company doctor and our own Occupational Health staff were approached for advice. This resulted in training for company staff about the standard precautions to be taken in preventing the spread of all communicable diseases. It was agreed that Paul had the right to be treated the same as anyone within the company and hepatitis should not be an issue in the future.

The Employment Officer contacted a psychologist to help Paul with his mental health problems. She agreed to offer him counselling with regard to his past and present problems and investigated alternative therapies such as anxiety management.

It was agreed with the company that:

• Paul would be allowed time to receive help and he could return to work on a phased basis.
• Our Employment Officer would meet Paul at break times to discuss any problems, fears or worries.
• Paul was to report any incidents at work directly to the Personnel Officer.

Within a month of the first contact between the company and the Supported Employment service, Paul had returned to full time work. He still meets with the psychologist and is in contact with our service occasionally.