Hello everyone. I'm sixty years old, have been type 1 for 43 years and am rather new to all this so any help would be appreciated.
Current employer is wanting me to see occupational health due to several hypos, which I am presuming will lead to the termination of my employment due to the safety nature of my job.
My question is can I get any financial help for not being able to continue in my current line of employment?
I have not registered myself as disabled although I also have asthma, depression and other health issues.
Thanks for reading and thanks in advance.
PeterJH
Hello Peter, and welcome.
I'm not an HR person, but I have managed a large number of people over the years, some of whom had health issues from time to time.
Firstly I would say a couple of things in general. Please don't allow your age to cloud the issue here. Your employer cannot take your age into account in making any decisions about you, unless you were in a profession which does not allow professional registration over a certain age. These are very few and far between, and from the little I know if those, the ages they are talking about are significantly more mature than 60.
Secondly, your employer has a responsibility to look after you, as well as their business, their customers and your colleagues. That looking after is different for each of those categories, but that brings me onto your proposed meeting with Occ Health.
If you are suffering "several hypos", I imagine this may be affecting you and maybe impacting on your work. Your employer is likely to want to understand what is going on, but, understandably, your line manager is unlikely to be equipped with with any medical knowledge, never mind experience of T1. Occ Health may not have huge experience of diabetes, but they will have access to it, for sure.
As a T1 diabetic, your employer is obliged to make "reasonable adjustments" in order to protect your (and their business) wellbeing. That could be an additional 10 minute break to snaffle a quick snack, or allow you to pause periodically to test and assess, or whatever. There may be other things in play that could be tweaked a bit.
would suggest you go to your Occ Health meeting with an open mind. If you know what is causing your hypos, then tell them, as that may inform them well enough to take steps to decrease the chances of them happening so frequently.
If you are a decent worker and have a good reputation with them, they will not want to lose you. Having someone you know and can trust to do their job well is very valuable to a business. It costs a lot of money to "manage someone out of a business", and it then costs a lot of money to recruit someone new, who might turn out to be unsuitable, longer term.
If you are feeling very unsettled with all of this, if you are a union member, then contact them and tell them what's going on, so that if required, they can step in and support you at a future point.
When you go to your meeting, take notes. It's usual (in my experience) that whomever has asked for you to be seen by Occ Health (HR or your Line Manager I'm guessing) will receive a report of your meeting, with findings (no medical details are usually included in this, except at the highest level; say confirming why you are there and the condition you are dealing with), and any proposals for moving forward, such as additional breaks/pauses or whatever.
Even if that meeting doesn't go exactly as you would like, you would always have the right of appeal and so on.
Please don't fast forward to being out of work. Hopefully that's a long way off and at a date of your choosing.
Let us know how you get on.
