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... commotion at any time during employment. Request for Medical Documentation When the need for accommodation is not obvious, an employer may ask an employee for reasonable documentation about his / her disability and functional limitations. The employer is entitled to know that the employee has a covered disability for which s / he needs a reasonable accommodation. Documentation Submitted by Employee A variety of health professionals may provide such documentation with regard to psychiatric disabilities, including primary health care professionals, psychiatrists, psychologists, psychiatric nurses, and licensed mental health professionals such as licensed clinical social workers and licensed professional counselors. Important information about an individual's functional limitations also may be obtained from non-professionals, such as the individual, his / her family members, and friends.
Requiring Individual to Go to Employer-Appointed Physician The ADA does not prevent an employer from requiring an employee to go to an appropriate health professional of the employer's choice if the employee initially provides insufficient information to substantiate that s / he has an ADA disability and needs a reasonable accommodation. If an employer requires an employee to go to a health professional of the employer's choice, the employer must pay all costs associated with the visit (s). When a primary health care professional supplies documentation about a psychiatric disability, his / her credibility depends on how well s / he knows the individual and on his / her knowledge about the psychiatric disability. Employers also may consider alternatives like having their health professional consult with the employee's health professional, with the employee's consent. Selected Types of Reasonable Accommodation (5: 8) Reasonable accommodations for individuals with disabilities must be determined on a case-by-case basis because workplaces and jobs vary, as do people with disabilities. Accommodations for individuals with psychiatric disabilities may involve changes to workplace policies, procedures, or practices.
Physical changes to the workplace or extra equipment also may be effective reasonable accommodations for some people. Permitting the use of accrued paid leave or providing additional unpaid leave for treatment or recovery related to a disability is a reasonable accommodation, unless (or until) the employee's absence imposes an undue hardship on the operation of the employer's business. This includes leaves of absence, occasional leave (e. g. , a few hours at a time), and part-time scheduling. A related accommodation is to allow an individual with a disability to change his / her regularly scheduled working hours, barring undue hardship.
Some medications taken for psychiatric disabilities cause extreme grogginess and lack of concentration in the morning. Depending on the job, a later schedule can enable the employee to perform essential job functions. Granting an employee time off from work or an adjusted work schedule as a reasonable accommodation may involve modifying leave or attendance procedures or policies. As an example, it would be a reasonable accommodation to modify a policy requiring employees to schedule vacation time in advance if an otherwise qualified individual with a disability needed to use accrued vacation time on an unscheduled basis because of disability-related medical problems, barring undue hardship. Physical changes to the workplace, such as room dividers, partitions, or other soundproofing or visual barriers between workspaces may accommodate individuals who have disability-related limitations in concentrations.
Moving an individual away from noisy machinery or reducing other workplace noise that can be adjusted (e. g. , lowering the volume or pitch of telephone) are similar reasonable accommodations. Permitting an individual to wear headphones to block out noisy distractions also may be effective. Some individuals who have disability-related limitations in concentration may benefit from access to equipment like a tape recorder for reviewing events such as training sessions or meetings.
Adjusting Supervisory Methods In some circumstances, supervisors may be able to adjust their methods as a reasonable accommodation by, for example, communicating assignments, instructions, or training by the medium that is most effective for a particular individual (e. g. , in writing, in conversation, or by electronic mail); providing or arranging additional training or modified training materials; or providing more detailed day-to-day guidance, feedback, or structure. An employer may be required to provide a temporary job coach to assist in the training of a qualified individual with a disability as a reasonable accommodation, barring undue hardship. In general, reassignment must be considered as a reasonable accommodation when accommodation in the present job would cause undue hardship or would not be possible. Reassignment may be considered if there are circumstances under which both the employer and employee voluntarily agree that it is preferable to accommodation in the present position.
Reassignment should be made to an equivalent position that is vacant or will become vacant within a reasonable amount of time. If an equivalent position is not available, the employer must look for a vacant position at a lower level for which the employee is qualified. Reassignment is not required if a vacant position at a lower level is also unavailable. Medication monitoring is not a reasonable accommodation.
Employers have no obligation to monitor medication because doing so does not remove a barrier that is unique to the workplace. The Job Accommodation Network (JAN) provides advice free-of-charge to employers and employees contemplating reasonable accommodation. JAN can be reached at 1 - 800 -ADA-WORK. Circumstances may arise when employers need to discipline individuals with psychiatric disabilities for misconduct. Violence, Threats, Misconduct The ADA does not prevent an employer from maintaining a workplace free of violence or threats of violence, or from disciplining an employee who steals or destroys property. Thus, an employer may discipline an employee with a disability for engaging in such misconduct if it would impose the same discipline on an employee without a disability.
Conduct Standards Must Be Job Related Other conduct standards may not be job-related for the position in question and consistent with business necessity (e. g. , neat appearance for non-customer contact positions where individual's appearance were exacerbated by disability). If the conduct standards are not job related, imposing discipline under them could violate the ADA. Future Compliance With Conduct Standards An employer must make reasonable accommodation to enable an otherwise qualified individual with a disability to meet a conduct standard in the future, barring undue hardship.
Because reasonable accommodation is always prospective, however, an employer is not required to excuse past misconduct. Employee Who Fails to Take Medication An employee who engages in misconduct because of his / her failure of taking his / her medication may be told the consequences of continued misconduct in terms of uniform disciplinary procedures. However, it is the employee's responsibility to decide about medication and to consider the consequences of not taking medication. Under the ADA, an employer may lawfully exclude an individual from employment for safety reasons only if the employer can show that employment of the individual would pose a "direct threat. " A direct threat means a significant risk of substantial harm to the health or safety of the individual or others that cannot be eliminated or reduced by reasonable accommodation. A significant risk is a high risk, and not just a slightly increased risk. The determination that an individual poses a "direct threat" must be based on an individualized assessment of the individual's present ability to safely perform the functions of the job, considering a reasonable medical judgment relying on the most current medical knowledge and / or the best available objective evidence.
History of Psychiatric Disability With respect to the employment of individuals with psychiatric disabilities, the employer must identify the specific behavior that would pose a direct threat. An individual does not pose a direct threat simply by virtue of having a history of psychiatric disability or being treated for a psychiatric disability. An individual does not pose a direct threat solely because s / he takes a medication that may diminish coordination for some people as a side effect. An individualized assessment must be made.
Thus, an employer must determine the nature and severity of the individual's side effects, how those side effects influence his / her ability to safely operate the machinery, and whether s / he has had safety problems in the past when operating the same or similar machinery while taking the medication. If a significant risk of substantial harm exists, then an employer must determine if there is a reasonable accommodation that will reduce or eliminate the risk. History of Violence or Threats An employer may refuse to hire someone based on his / her history of violence or threats or violence if it can show that the individual poses a direct threat, based on an individualized assessment. The employer must identify the specific behavior on the part of the individual that would pose the direct threat, including an assessment of the likelihood and imminence of future violence. In most circumstances, an individual who has attempted suicide does not pose a direct threat when s / he seeks to return to work. An employer must base its determination on an individualized assessment of that person's ability to safely perform job functions when s / he returns to work.
Attempting suicide does not mean that an individual poses an imminent risk of harm to him / herself when s / he returns to work. The above is a summary of the guidelines only and does not go into great detail. The full guidelines should be studied for applicability to individual situations. Below are some closing remarks on the importance for HR managers to become knowledgeable about the ADA and how it relates to mental impairment and psychiatric disabilities. Returning persons with psychiatric disabilities to gainful employment is a difficult issue since it involves human interactions, which can be very subjective. Most employers want to do the right thing for their employees, or, at the very least, meet their legal obligations.
To achieve this goal, HR managers must become knowledgeable of the ADA as it deals with psychiatric disabilities and, in effect, become accommodations coordinators. Employers are often confused or at a loss about how to accommodate a person with a mental impairment. Lack of knowledge, fear, stereotyping, and perhaps the persons own inability to understand how his or her condition may manifest itself are all reasons for this situation. HR managers must obtain all information available to them and must require sufficient employee and professional medical input to make an effective According to the National Institute for Mental Health in Rockville, Maryland, more than 51 million adults live with some sort of diagnosable mental disorder, with depression being the most common disorder (1: 3). This statistic will have a great impact on HR managers of today and the future. It is important that HR managers prepare themselves for this so that they can make the best legal and moral decisions for all parties concerned.
When Employees with Psychiatric Disabilities Return to Work - Practical Tips for Accommodation, HR Managers Legal Reporter, No. 340 (1997). Home, Roberts & Owen LLP, Disability Dilemmas, RE: VIEW, June 1997, on-line, available from Winger, Lawrence C. , Employee Psychological Injuries and the Employers Duty of Reasonable Accommodation, Kraft & Winger, August 1997, on-line, available from Conners, Richard L. , New EEOC Guidance on Psychiatric Disabilities, Law at Work, Fall 1997, on-line, available from EEOC Commission, EEOC Compliance Manual, EEOC Notice, Number 915. 002, EEOC Enforcement Guidance on the Americans with Disabilities Act and Psychiatric Disabilities, March 25, 1997, on-line, available from Netscape@//jane. ii. wvu. edu Bibliography:
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Research essay sample on Ada And Psychiatric Disabilities
