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My name is Caroline and i have a diagnosis of borderline/emotionally unstable personality disorder.
I work full time but presently i am off work which is being enforced by my job. I had 2 months off work last year and then went back for 2 months which was going well. I work in a mental health unit myself and one of the units on site is a crisis service. The crisis team visit almost daily to see the clients in the crisis house.
Whilst i was off last year the crisis team were involved with me for almost 2 months. On the 4th of Feb my line manager asked me into the office. He told me that they had received a phone call of concern from the clinical lead of the crisis team who said i had been discussing my mental health with them and had even told one of the crisis team nurses that i was relapsing.
I admitted that i may have mentioned my mental health in passing but had not gone into great detail and certainly had not said that i was relapsing.
My boss then said that would need to be investigated. I said that i acknowledged that i may have broken professional boundaries but am willing to address this and move on. I then said i was concerned and did not want to lose my job over this.
My boss took an official stance and said that whilst he could not guarantee this he stressed that was not the direction they were going to go in. He even discussed my next supervision and briefly discussed my future development.
The meeting to investigate this was meant to be on the on the 9th of February. I became very anxious about this and had to call in sick on the 9th for my weekend shifts.
I took an overdose and on sunday the 7th of feb was taken to a&e. I was put on a NAK drip to prevent liver damage and had to stay in hospital overnight. The hospital liaison team came to see me and the nurse who saw me felt i was in no danger, had capacity but was going to refer me to the crisis team to see if they wanted to assess me.
The next day the crisis team called me and said that they did not think I warranted their involvent.
I called my employers and I admit I was not going to inform them of the real reason I had been admitted to hospital. I felt ashamed at my actions and just was going to tell them that I had chest pains and had vomited blood. (my husband had called them initially to inform them that I had been admitted but did not tell them why).
When I called my line manager said they had received a call to inform them that I had taken an overdose and before I could return to work I had to take a copy of my job description to my GP and then get my GP to say I could return to work. I did this and my GP said that I was fine to return to work but was unwilling to look into the intricacies of my job description and said this was a matter for an occupational health professional. But he wrote me a fit note saying I was fit for work but risk involved in rold should be assessed by occupational health.
My employers then said that I cannot return to work until I have been assessed by occupational health and because my gp has said that I can return to work they have to pay me full pay until the matter is resolved.
I am extremely worried about the whole thing.
I called a lady called XXXXXXXXXX who works in complaints at the XXXXXXXXXX unit part of the hospital as I was concerned that my confidentiality had been breached and I suspect it is a lady who is the clinical lead from the crisis team and she was the one who called my employers initially to put across her concerns.
XXXXXXXXXXX contacted this lady and my boss and I was assured that I would get a call from my boss who would inform me of who had contacted my work and what they said but I never received the call. Obviously I thought that issues regarding my health and why I was in hospital was confidential.
If I had broken my leg no one would have contacted my employers. I am concerned about them firing me in the end over this.I am going to approach a union over this but wondered if you had advice for me and do they personally represent people in meetings at work and such.
I attend a mental health support group sometimes and the members suggested I approach yourselves and if my employers do fire me they could be breaching disability legislation. I would be gratefull for any support and advice that you could give me. Since then i have recieved a letter from my manager asking me to attend an investigation meeting for alleged misconduct saying i have discussed my mental health with members of the crisis team whilst they were at the crisis service.
I admit i may have said a couple of things but not at length and i certainly did not say i was relapsing like the crisis team have alleged that i said. I am going t cal acas on monday to see what they say and i fear that my bosses may try and get rid of me due to this investigation when in fact they dont want to deal with me due to my mental health.
I work full time but presently i am off work which is being enforced by my job. I had 2 months off work last year and then went back for 2 months which was going well. I work in a mental health unit myself and one of the units on site is a crisis service. The crisis team visit almost daily to see the clients in the crisis house.
Whilst i was off last year the crisis team were involved with me for almost 2 months. On the 4th of Feb my line manager asked me into the office. He told me that they had received a phone call of concern from the clinical lead of the crisis team who said i had been discussing my mental health with them and had even told one of the crisis team nurses that i was relapsing.
I admitted that i may have mentioned my mental health in passing but had not gone into great detail and certainly had not said that i was relapsing.
My boss then said that would need to be investigated. I said that i acknowledged that i may have broken professional boundaries but am willing to address this and move on. I then said i was concerned and did not want to lose my job over this.
My boss took an official stance and said that whilst he could not guarantee this he stressed that was not the direction they were going to go in. He even discussed my next supervision and briefly discussed my future development.
The meeting to investigate this was meant to be on the on the 9th of February. I became very anxious about this and had to call in sick on the 9th for my weekend shifts.
I took an overdose and on sunday the 7th of feb was taken to a&e. I was put on a NAK drip to prevent liver damage and had to stay in hospital overnight. The hospital liaison team came to see me and the nurse who saw me felt i was in no danger, had capacity but was going to refer me to the crisis team to see if they wanted to assess me.
The next day the crisis team called me and said that they did not think I warranted their involvent.
I called my employers and I admit I was not going to inform them of the real reason I had been admitted to hospital. I felt ashamed at my actions and just was going to tell them that I had chest pains and had vomited blood. (my husband had called them initially to inform them that I had been admitted but did not tell them why).
When I called my line manager said they had received a call to inform them that I had taken an overdose and before I could return to work I had to take a copy of my job description to my GP and then get my GP to say I could return to work. I did this and my GP said that I was fine to return to work but was unwilling to look into the intricacies of my job description and said this was a matter for an occupational health professional. But he wrote me a fit note saying I was fit for work but risk involved in rold should be assessed by occupational health.
My employers then said that I cannot return to work until I have been assessed by occupational health and because my gp has said that I can return to work they have to pay me full pay until the matter is resolved.
I am extremely worried about the whole thing.
I called a lady called XXXXXXXXXX who works in complaints at the XXXXXXXXXX unit part of the hospital as I was concerned that my confidentiality had been breached and I suspect it is a lady who is the clinical lead from the crisis team and she was the one who called my employers initially to put across her concerns.
XXXXXXXXXXX contacted this lady and my boss and I was assured that I would get a call from my boss who would inform me of who had contacted my work and what they said but I never received the call. Obviously I thought that issues regarding my health and why I was in hospital was confidential.
If I had broken my leg no one would have contacted my employers. I am concerned about them firing me in the end over this.I am going to approach a union over this but wondered if you had advice for me and do they personally represent people in meetings at work and such.
I attend a mental health support group sometimes and the members suggested I approach yourselves and if my employers do fire me they could be breaching disability legislation. I would be gratefull for any support and advice that you could give me. Since then i have recieved a letter from my manager asking me to attend an investigation meeting for alleged misconduct saying i have discussed my mental health with members of the crisis team whilst they were at the crisis service.
I admit i may have said a couple of things but not at length and i certainly did not say i was relapsing like the crisis team have alleged that i said. I am going t cal acas on monday to see what they say and i fear that my bosses may try and get rid of me due to this investigation when in fact they dont want to deal with me due to my mental health.
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