ADA
Jo Ann
8 Posts
This week one of our employees started crying for no apparent reason on Monday, on Tuesday she came in, saw 1 patient and went home, yesterday after she came in she was just sitting and staring.
Her office supervisior asked what was wrong and the employee told her that she has had psychological problems for the last 10 years and is on a rather strong medication. Her supervisor tried to get her to crisis intervention clinic but she walked out. Yesterday she said she would check herself into the clinic for a 72 hours.
She has been with us for 5 months now. Her job is stressful and requires dealing with patients as well as being on call every other week and splitting weekends with her supervisor.
We know she is not covered by FLMA but is covered by ADA. We are concerned for our patients. What can we do to remedy this situation?
Her office supervisior asked what was wrong and the employee told her that she has had psychological problems for the last 10 years and is on a rather strong medication. Her supervisor tried to get her to crisis intervention clinic but she walked out. Yesterday she said she would check herself into the clinic for a 72 hours.
She has been with us for 5 months now. Her job is stressful and requires dealing with patients as well as being on call every other week and splitting weekends with her supervisor.
We know she is not covered by FLMA but is covered by ADA. We are concerned for our patients. What can we do to remedy this situation?
Comments
If she is linking her demonstrated work-related problems (not doing duties, leaving early, etc) to a psychological condition and medication, then there are a couple of ways to go under federal ADA. I'm not familiar with Florida law that could be similar to ADA, so yo may want to check if there is one and what is says about your options.
If the employee appears unable to perform the essential duties of the job satisfactorily due to psychological problem then you could have her evaluated on that basis. Just document the instances and her connection with "psychological conditions."
The second approach, under ADA, may be to evaluate eligibilty and need for reaonable accommodation.
Talk to the employee and together figure out what needs to be done. She is probably worried about her job at this point. So, if done in a positive manner, either approach, especially the latter, should be do-able.