Jill if your enquiry is for legal reasons, you have to apply
formally. Perhaps you could ring me.
Chris
From: [log in to unmask]
[mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of sharon naylor
Sent: 17 May 2012 18:09
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: [OCC-HEALTH] Insomnia
I have three people on my case load at the mo with sleep
difficulties.
One is citing "insomnia" as a reason not to be moved to an area
where she will have more frequent night shifts, backed up with an unsolicited
letter of support from the GP stating that individual had depression
ages ago and fears a relapse if she does the shift rotation required, however
apart from a past prescription for anti depressants has had no investigation
nor treatment into her apparent difficulties (which appear to be that she stays
awake for ages before dropping off, and then sleeps for about 4 -5 hours.)
Historically she has objected to moves because of possibly having to work
opposite weekends to her partner, and the new shift pattern would likely mean
this also. Management have declined her appeal after having sight of the GP
report (it was addressed to her line manager), my input was to say that the
views of her treating clinician were clear, and that without further evidence I
did not feel I could add any more.
Case 2 has a myriad of problems which GP thinks may be related to sleep apnoea,
referral to local clinic within weeks, is having an overnight assessment with
pulse oximeter etc ASAP, he is working "normally" but struggles
during the day with yawning, sleepiness etc. My involvement at the moment is
advising him on various lifestyle issues that may be affecting him and this
potential diagnosis.
Case 3 - sleep apnoea, well investigated and documented,
struggles at work if he doesnt keep busy and would prefer to not work in an
area that would involve long periods of looking at monitors as he fears he may
"drop off". Has cited this as an appeal against job rotation into
such an area. Reasonable in my view, and due to the nature of the business and
the security critical role management have agreed to his request
I think my point is that "insomnia" is a fairly
nebulous term, is very subjective and can mean different things to
different people, (and also may be used as a pressure to ensure a desired
outcome?) The last two cases above are working normally - case 1 is now taking
recurrent short term absences citing "insomnia" but reports that no
further referral is planned. I think that unless there is evidence that
the problems are in fact emanating from a "clinical" issue its very
difficult to advise or predict outcomes. If someone is in a safety critical
role where fatigue may adversely affect performance maybe a fair amount could
be achieved by management scrutiny of performance/work tasks rather than OH
being required to predict outcomes on what appears to be fairly vague
information. I would not be that chuffed to be put in a position
where i was being asked whether an individual would be able to "cope"
with a work practise because they have reported "insomnia" without a
bit more relevant detail. Unless I`ve missed the point of your question...?
> Date: Thu, 17 May 2012 17:36:51 +0100
> From: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Re: [OCC-HEALTH] Insomnia
> To: [log in to unmask]
>
> My husband is a sleep physiologist, from what he tells me there are very
few true insomniacs, has he been referred to a sleep clinic for assessment.
Alot of people just have poor sleep hygeine and need to relearn how to fall
asleep. His GP should be able to refer him to the nearest sleep clinic for
proper assessment.
>
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