Triggering (Suicide) - Occupational Health After an Overdose/Incident of Self Harm?

[Sleepless123]

i wondered if anyone had ever been referred to Occupational Health at their work specifically due to an overdose or an incident of self harm?

Or know what the role of Occupational Health is in this situation?

i had to see them before i started a couple of years ago for a medical but this is something separate and different.

Cutting a long story short four or five weeks ago now i overdosed on a Saturday afternoon with the intention of death.

i work Mondays to Fridays but knew if i did it at weekend i would have the best chance of being successful hopefully cos i wouldnt be found.i live alone.

Anyway obviously i wasnt successful but was unconscious/asleep for over 24 hours and wasnt well enough to go to work the Monday.i saw my GP and the crisis team but even do not remember much at all of those appointments or the Monday at all.

But i phoned in sick to work luckily [i say luckily cos i dont really remember much of doing so but obviously really would of been in trouble if i hadnt] not saying much just saying i was having mental health problems and wasnt coming in.

Anyway the following day i went into work forgetting that i would have to have a back to work chat [part of our sickness procedures].

My normal manager wasnt in so i got the obvious manager.

She started the conversation with 'So you havent been feeling very good then?' sort of as a question.

i was silent i didnt know what to say.

So after a few moments she said 'Ok on to the next question' but then i felt guilty and bad about not knowing what to say so i blurted out to her the reason i hadnt been in the Monday - that id taken an overdose the weekend so hadnt made it in the Monday, hadnt been well still and had had also to see GP and crisis team etc.

Probably not the type of thing to tell your employer!

But actually she was very very good with it.And rang occupational health with me.

As a result of what happened they are now going to give me four 50 minute sessions of telephone support as a result of what happened [that is all they can give but better than nothing - it can only be short term.]

The first session i had this Monday and the second one i have next Monday.

And it seemed ok.

But im very scared and worried about how much i can say to them?Has anyone else ever been in this situation?

Thanks.

[startingagain]

Hi-OH knew that I had self harmed and it didn't make any difference to my job. They need to decide if you are fit for work or not.
Remember you are covered by the DDA and they may make reasonable adjustments to support you.
The counselling should be confidential. x

She may just be giving you a sort of counseling. I've been to jobs that offered that. It should be completely confidential as long as you don't have a plan to harm yourself or others. hope it works out.

[88shelz]

i find that being honest has usually been a great help.
they can offer more suport and help you dad to day at work
the disability act means that they cannot discrimintate again mental health