Posted by no longer naive on August 1, 2002, at 22:13:03
In reply to Re: Am I Being Awful? (sorry long) » BarbaraCat, posted by mair on August 1, 2002, at 14:41:10
Mair, are you the person in charge of this decision? If not, I'd really hesitate if I were you before getting into the thick of it. Disability insurance varies from company to company and state to state and ADA guidelines can seem arbitrary. Disability discrimination is a very thorny legal area requiring professional advice. This is something that most HR departments are well versed in. Perhaps you don't have an HR department and everyone contributes to decision making, however, the owner of the company should either assign this to someone or take it on themselves. You do not want to shoulder this burden yourself because you will most definitely be the target for blame from all sides if a lawsuit develops. Your company should have a legal advisor and if not, this is a very good incentive to get one. One thing you might consider is to let her know that she has disability options, either through your employer and/or through social security disability. If you don't have an HR department that has this info, then talking to the social security deparment or with someone from NAMI (National Association for Mentally Ill) might give good advice. But try not to get overly involved, much as you'd like to help, because this is a job for her doctor, her family, her employer, not you.
poster:no longer naive
thread:27701
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/social/20020728/msgs/27801.html