Articles
AIDING MEMBERS IN CRISIS: by Allen McQuarrie & Terry Livorsi
AIDING MEMBERS IN CRISIS
By Allen McQuarrie & Terry Livorsi
A paraprofessional with multiple sclerosis finds she can no longer stand and requires use of a wheelchair.
A teacher with diabetes grows progressively blind and can't see the blackboard.
A maintenance worker with a heart ailment can't lift heavy items.
A custodian, plagued by alcoholism, comes cheerfully to work reeking of alcohol.
What is going to happen to these school staff members?
Employers and associations must now comply with the Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA) of 1990, which prohibits discrimination against people with disabilities in employment. Included among those protected by the law are employees with physical or mental impairment or a record of such impairment, which can include a stress-related or addictive illness.
Representation includes gaining treatment
In many cases, disabled employees need association assistance to establish the existence of a disability or to support claims that they can perform their jobs adequately.
Behind every "war story" about an association member in crisis is a distress call for help that may go beyond a simple case of legal representation. The member might be suffering from a treatable illness protected by the ADA.
The association's duty to fairly represent impaired members could entail helping them gain access to treatment as a condition of returning to work, saving a job, or purging negative evaluations from a personnel file.
Members whose careers are in jeopardy often are facing personal crises that form the root of their performance problems.
And they don't just have job problems. They may be suffering from a variety of treatable mental health conditions, addictive diseases and stress-related illnesses that impair not only performance, but also their interaction with co-0workers, family members, and others.
Look for cause behind job problems
The causes and effects of impaired performance take many forms.
Such success stories do not happen every day or in every case. The cases cited involved cooperative members who accepted the need for treatment, as well as school districts, which recognize that pursuing punitive action was not the solution.
Risks of denial, refusing treatment
Impaired members sometimes deny they need treatment, and disciplinary measures are applied because the employee refuses to deal with the disability or addiction. If the job performance problem continues and the disabled member foolishly exhausts all legal remedies short of entering a treatment program, discipline is all but certain.
Those who balk at accepting treatment are not only at risk on the job. They may excessively burden the association advocate. Unable to "find a solution" to their employment problem, impaired members besiege their association representatives, filling their schedules with meetings, conferences, and phone calls.
Need for intervention
Associations may find it necessary to refer the individual to a crisis intervention specialist or a member assistance program expert to confront the member and help the individual move into a treatment plan.
The reluctant member needs strong intervention by a skilled member/employee assistance program counselor. The association representative becomes part of the team to help motivate the member who resists treatment. Otherwise, today's acute problem will become a chronic representation problem for the association. This is an expensive approach for the school district, the association, and the member.
The gratitude of the recovering members is a deep source of satisfaction to those who do the representation work, and the results are measurable:
Timing is important when disabled members need help. Health must be restored before the impairment becomes severe enough to prevent successful intervention.
One case dramatically demonstrates how the combined efforts of a treatment facility and strong advocacy brought a successful conclusion to this teacher's problem.
An educator in good standing with 20 years of experience suffers from the effects of Lupus Disease. She experienced a blackout in a store while shopping and inadvertently wandered out the door with retail items in her hand for which she had not paid. She was arrested for shoplifting, and her case was printed in the newspaper. Her principal read about the case in the press and, pending tenure charges, suspended her. Her advocate was able to prove her illness affected her behavior. She was cleared by the courts and restored to her job by the administration.
These and similar cases demonstrate the effectiveness of combining sound representation with treatment to retrieve health, to protect jobs, to save lives, and to restore professional reputations.
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HOPE AND HELP AVAILABLE FOR VICTIMS OF SUBSTANCE ABUSE
By Ruth Deming, Psychotherapist
First published in the Philadelphia Inquirer in November, 2006
The skyrocketing of substance abuse in epidemic proportions was the topic addressed by drug counselor Terry Livorsi at New Directions Support Group—for people with depression and bipolar disorder and their loved ones—on November 21, 2006 at Abington Presbyterian Church.
Reliance on alcohol, marijuana, prescription narcotics and illegal drugs such as heroin, which recently claimed the lives of several area teenagers, is of deep concern to us all, especially parents. In addition to the peer pressure of drug experimentation, said Livorsi, there is often an underlying undetected case of depression or bipolar disorder. The good news is that there is hope and help available.
Livorsi, president of the Willow Grove-based HealthCare Assistance with Member Support, LLC, overcame his own addictions and has 26 years of sobriety. He changed careers from an electrician to a health care professional due to his passion to help others. He performs sensitive, non-threatening interventions to help addicted individuals of all ages break out of their “denial system” that prevents them from seeking help. “Telling the truth in a powerful circle of unconditional love,” said Livorsi, “is how to teach people to seek the necessary help.”
He cited the failure of our 15-year health care insurance system, which has resulted in a “breakdown of our mental health system.” While many local treatment facilities for mental health and addictions treatment are excellent, the inpatient days mandated by managed care are too short to allow real healing to occur, he said. Livorsi himself refers qualifying patients to a long-term facility in Florida, where patients can stay as long as necessary, unlike our average five-day inpatient stays in the greater Philadelphia area. “We incarcerate for behavioral issues,” he says, “instead of sending people for humane treatment.”
This sad fact was borne out by a 21-year-old member of New Directions who spent nearly a year in Bucks County prison for stealing to pay for his street drugs for his underlying bipolar disorder. Fortunately, this young man learned his lesson. With superb and necessary family support, the young man entered a wonderful program at Penn Foundation in Sellersville and is on proper medication, plus excellent talk therapy, to manage his mood swings. “We have our son back for Thanksgiving,” said his proud mom. “We have the real person, not the drug addict.” He is now working to pay back his enormous legal fees and has a truly promising future.
Living in our stress-based, workaholic society exacts its toll on many, particularly during the holiday season. Livorsi, who practices what he preaches, suggests a well-balanced life. To counteract stress, he suggests a holistic approach, useful for everyone: aerobic exercise, good nutrition, meditation and spirituality, whether it's in the form of organized religion or “a higher power of your choice.”
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IMPACTING PUBLIC POLICY STATEWIDE
PRO-ACT Releases its Official Position on Confidentiality Under 4 PA Code Section 255.5b
As seen in the Summer 2007 issue of The Ambassador newsletter.
The cornerstone of recovery is the ability to accept treatment for our addiction to alcohol or other drugs, make our amends for any errors we have made while under the influence of our addiction, resume our lives, and restore our credibility. On the pathway to recovery we share information with those entrusted with our medical care. The assessment of our condition is necessary to provide treatment. However, in providing treatment, much of what the treating facility learns about us ought to remain secure enough not to do ultimate harm to our eventual recovery.
It is in the best interest of the consumer of healthcare services for those with an addiction problem and/or those in recovery to be secure in our privacy. If more than necessary or inappropriate information goes beyond the clinical setting in such form as to disable reputations and thus do harm to one's ability to make a living, or limit one's freedom, or aid in self-incrimination without representation—it behooves us to stand firm on amendments to this practice.
Those who indiscriminately share medical, personal, biological, social and psychological records without respect for the personal boundaries of others are parties to possibly harming a healthy recovery and ought to be subject to penalties under the law to end such practices.
The stigma associated with this disease is unfortunately so profound that it necessitates our doing what we can to help those who cannot help themselves. PRO-ACT represents those in any stage of recovery who have a real stake in restoring their membership in the community without prejudice. Therefore, PRO-ACT urges that the code of conduct that governs privacy rights under 4 PA Code Section 255.5b (relating to projects and coordinating bodies; disclosure of client-oriented information) ought to remain sacrosanct.
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Allen McQuarrie's Bio