Posted by mary on March 08, 1998 at 17:09:56:
In Reply to: ADA Mental Health (Depression) Experience posted by Paul Kadow on September 02, 1997 at 21:04:43:
: I would be interested in hearing from anyone who has
: had any experiences on their job with the "Americans
: with Disabilities" law and Mental Health,
: especially Major Depression or Manic-Depression.
: --thanks, Paul
I was hospitalized in early January due to mental illness. According to the medical staff it is my long-term unsafe and unhealthful work conditions that have disabled me to the point of being unable to take care of myself. I am of very strong stock but for the past nearly two years I have been beaten down at my job (that I have held for 15 years) to the point of breakdown. I filed my CA-2 and instead of expeditiously filing this form with DOL (since I am not receiving any wages), my HRO routed it to my uppermost management who reviewed it (not a routine use of the form) on February 18, 1998, and decided the supervisor's statement was "too in favor of the claim." On February 20, 1998, they demoted my supervisor from management to a non-supervisory yet to be determined position. Between February 18 and 20, knowing that they could be in severe violation of the law to demote someone based on their statement on a CA-2 form, they claimed my supervisor made personal phone calls (less than five minutes per day) on government phones. I do not know anyone, even one of these upper managers who I used to work for, that does not make personal phone calls on government phones. Yes, it may be against the rules, but it is also against the rules to perform a double standard as well which is obvious in this case. Regardless, my CA-2 form did not get sent to DOL until March 4, 1998. I submitted it to my HRO on February 12, 1998. Initially, the delay was because I had no physician's statement attached (an item that can be added later). I visited my doctor who gave me a statement that my employer then said was not good enough. The word is that they were really delaying it to prepare their controverting cover letter to DOL. My employer believes I merely have some boyfriend problems. This is not the case although it cannot be ignored that this boyfriend they refer to is also a co-worker who has been a key player in the harrassment I have had to endure over the past two years. The only person who has tried to help my situation is my immediate supervisor who is then accused of favoritism. This involves "whistleblowing" also, so I obviously have very few friends (except for hopefully the taxpayers). My employer has not been concerned with any reasonable accommodations based on my disability. And this should be being addressed regardless of how the disability occurred. They are basically using a disabled person to execute a prohibited personnel practice and that being to reorganize my department. This is a wish of the highest civilian manager since he came "into power" about two years ago. Ironic how this is when my health began to deteriorate and my supervisor began being accused of favoritism and misconduct (after nearly 30 years of service). I have talked to a friend who is disabled and bound to a wheelchair following a diving accident that did not occur while working. His disability is very obvious, but he has told me that my disability is categorized the same in terms of employer obligations, etc. He went on to say that the inability to use his legs is far less disabling than the mental stress life renders unrelated to his legs. He told me about a client he saw at his office who did not know of his disability. This client was upset about something and was blaming Jeff and making several demands. Jeff was intent on accommodating this man's requests, and when he reached for his hidden wheelchair he hops his way into, the man transformed into someone who had no problems at all for Jeff to correct. He was entirely embarrassed and apologetic. Jeff told the man he was very much entitled to express his dissatisfaction and the corrections would be made. His point was that he feels persons with all of their mobility actually must endure more stress than he does. Of course, there are moments when he's late and feels that if he could just move faster like everyone else, he could perform better. But, overall the world can supply his reasonable accommodations. He agrees that mental illness disability has a stigma and there are many uninformed employers. He recommended to politely inform these individuals of the law and to try to regain my health (which has only deteriorated through this episode). Are you employed? How does your employer treat your mental illness disability? Did you have problems like me?