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Mental Health Questionnaire Form

Posted in Uncategorized | August 27th, 2011

What should I put on an occupational health questionnaire?

I have just been informally offered a job and will need to fill out an occupational health questionnaire. I have a history of mental illness and have been off work for the past year (although on my CV I said to care for a family member). I was initially diagnosed with bipolar disorder but have subsequently been told I don’t have it. However, I have definitely been depressed and do suffer from bad anxiety. I want to say ‘NO’ to all questions on the health form, however, I am worried that they might for some reason check and if they do I will be found out and lose my job which I desperately need to get my life back on track. If I say ‘YES’ to questions regarding my mental health, even if I say just depression and anxiety, will this mean they won’t give me the job? Can someone withdraw an offer of employment if I have depression and anxiety? I am really not sure what to do. Can anyone advise me?

Don’t lie. It could work in your favour in the long-term if you state your problems to occupational health. Your employers won’t be able to check the details – these should stay known only to the occupational health department. I recently got a new job and I’m on waiting list for psychotherapy and suffer from bouts of depression. I decided to be honest about it on my occupational health form. I haven’t in the past, and when I’ve had trouble at work with controlling my emotions, nobody has known what was wrong. The occpational health doctor I saw has put a note on my personal file that I ‘can be sensitive to some stressors’. This means that in the future, if I do have problems, my boss will know that there might be a medical issue for these. It’s actually made me feel a lot safer. If you are in remission from your mental illness at the moment and if you tell the doctor you see at occupational health that you feel you can manage your job at the moment, it shouldn’t prevent you from being employed. I would suggest that when you do have your OH appointment that you be very positive about your current state of mind (even if this is not true) but you should tell them about your history of mental illness.
Good luck with it all!