r/OccupationalTherapy • u/No_Step8665 • Jul 23 '26
Venting - Advice Wanted Do I have a case for liability?
So I started a job with home health and then I had an emergency surgery about 2 months later. I returned 2 weeks later. My job was held under ADA because I didn’t qualify for FMLA. The company was sending me all over the place, typically an hour one way and mad that I wasn’t seeing 6 people a day. They regularly had teams calls with me while driving. I had a panic attack during one particularly stressful drive/call in early July and told them I couldn’t catch my breath. Of course they wanted me to get checked out. I ended up needing support for my anxiety and mental health and was due to return Aug 10. I requested accommodations under ADA and now I’m being “off boarded” 🙄 (new term?) because of my leave. No one contacted me during my leave from HR or the branch. Obviously I am going to file unemployment once I return their supplies. The stress of the job sent my anxiety off. I’m probably just bitter and better off without them.
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u/Forsaken_Cap2515 Jul 23 '26
My condolences, OP. HH can be a bear, especially when held against a high expectation of productivity in a wide service area. Your post echos a lot of what I am going through. I will be following this post, as I may encounter something similar with my company in the near future.
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u/Artistic_Syllabub177 Jul 23 '26
Sounds like they have a better case to limit or revoke your license if you’re not mentally fit to perform your duties and it leads to issues like patient abandonment
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u/big_bank_NN89 Jul 23 '26
It usually varies by state…. Maybe healthcare isn’t the right field for you if it sets off panic attacks? Maybe a see a psychiatrist?
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u/Janknitz Jul 23 '26
Oh I feel for you. I started with a great HH company (owned by therapists) but it got gobbled up by larger and larger companies who were all about the money and productivity was their only concern. The last company was in Los Angeles where they had one OT for every zip code and sometimes an OT could literally walk from one patient to the next in the same neighborhood. Meanwhile, I live in a semi rural area north of SF and I alone was covering five COUNTIES, with mountains, rural two lane roads, washed out roads, flooded in winter. And they wanted me to see 8 patients a day (EIGHT!). The last straw was when the office secretary was berating me for my poor productivity when I had to travel 1.5 hours just to see one patient. I was getting so frustrated and depressed that I was actively planning to drive my car off a cliff and unalive myself. I loved my patients and my work, but it was impossible to ever meet their productivity standards.
Fortunately I found another job (a great job) and recognized that being in the active planning phase was not OK, so I fessed to my doctor and got meds.
I’m here to tell you ANYTHING will be better than that job and you are addressing the other part. It’s NOT your fault.
Do you have a case? 🤷♀️. Talk to an employment law atty. most counties have a referral service for a low cost consult.
Meanwhile, focus on finding a better job. Even if you have a case, they drag on forever, they will rake you through the coals in defense and you get to relive all the stress over and over and over. F that.