How to Deal with Depression and Work Restrictions: Give the Doctor a Note

In requesting documentation to back up an accommodation request, employers should specify what types of information they are seeking regarding the disability, its functional limitations, and the need for reasonable accommodation. The employee can be asked to sign a limited release allowing the employer to submit a list of specific questions to the healthcare professional.

Include a list of essential job functions, and ask the medical provider: Is this person fit to perform these essential functions? How does the condition affect the ability to perform these essential job functions?

Sample Medical Questionnaire Inquiry

Here is a sample medical questionnaire inquiry sent to the medical provider to further the interactive process:

Your written note of November 12, 2012, states in part that this individual’s job that involves her participation on the marketing team "presents stressors that create an uncomfortable, anxiety-ridden, stressful work environment that aggravates her depressive symptoms." With respect to the specific essential job functions listed in the attached job description, describe the "stressors" that limit or prevent her performance of essential job functions.

Separately for each of the items listed under essential functions, please describe any functional limitations and work restrictions that in your opinion are medically recommended for this patient to enable her to perform the essential functions of this position.

Don’t miss our upcoming webinar on how to effectively—and legally—manage depression in your California workplace. Learn more.

How to Deal with Depression and Work Restrictions: Examples of Reasonable Accommodations

Here is a checklist of some possible reasonable accommodations for an employee with depression. Not all will be reasonable in every situation, but this is a start:

• Flexible scheduling
• Modified schedule
• Reduced distractions (for example, reduce noise or remove from an open work environment)
• Increase natural lighting or provide full spectrum lighting
• Work from home/telecommuting
• Divide large assignments into smaller tasks
• Job restructuring
• Provide memory aids such as schedulers, organizers, etc.
• Flexible breaks
• Stress management techniques
• Provide goal-oriented workload
• Reduce tasks
• Provide job coach or mentor
• Allow additional training time
• Provide written checklists
• Use daily, weekly, and monthly task lists

"This is all an individualized analysis. You can have two people with the same depression, one of whom can be accommodated while the other can’t because of a difference in the nature of their job," Eyres says.

Live webinar coming Wednesday, August 28, 2013
10:30 a.m. to Noon Pacific

Mental disabilities under the Americans with Disabilities Act may include depression, anxiety, and other potentially debilitating mental ailments.

California’s Fair Employment and Housing Commission recently adopted expansive new regulations governing disability discrimination claims and accommodations for pregnant employees. The regulations, now in effect, broaden the types of "conditions of pregnancy" for which workplace accommodations will be required—even if they don’t involve a pregnancy-related disability.

From a practical standpoint, that means employers may have increased obligations concerning accommodations for employees who take leave for childbirth and have delayed return due to post-partum depression.

Also, in May 2013, the EEOC issued guidance on mental health professionals’ role in helping an employer with the reasonable accommodation process concerning employees with mental ailments.

To successfully handle performance deficiencies, designate intermittent and block time off, or grant accommodations due to depression, you must be able to artfully master your obligations under FEHA, FMLA, and the CFRA.

Participate in this interactive webinar for California employers, when attorney and expert trainer Patricia Eyres will explain:

• How to tell if a depressed employee is "disabled" under the ADA’s mental impairment definition and under FEHA
• What you should know about the EEOC’s recently issued guidance on the role of mental health professionals in assessing accommodations for mental conditions
• The game plan for handling a depressed employee you believe may be protected under the ADA/FEHA
• Best practices for protecting your organization against "regarded as disabled" claims in California
• How to tell if depression substantially limits an employee from performing one or more major life activities
• Whether depression is generally a covered disability if it’s the result of an underlying medical condition or due to an emotional trauma
• “Do’s and taboos” if you suspect an employee is suffering from depression and/or another mental disability
• The medical inquiries, limited examinations, and documentation you may legally request that an employee provide
• Examples of when a job-protected leave of absence would likely be considered a reasonable accommodation
• How to respond to erratic attendance and persistent tardiness, including when to raise potential FMLA/CFRA leave as an option
• How to successfully manage intermittent leave for chronic depression and curb potential FMLA/CFRA abuse related to depressed workers
• When you may legally discipline or terminate an employee with depression without sparking liability under federal and California disability and leave laws
• And much more!

In just 90 minutes, you’ll learn practical strategies for handling leave and disability accommodation requests from employees suffering from depression. Register now for this informative event for HR professionals in California.

Download your copy of Training Your New Supervisors: 11 Practical Lessons today!