Depression/Anxiety: Nurse Not Disabled, Court Nixes Disability Discrimination Suit
Quick Summary: Despite her depressive illness the nurse was able to work and she received good performance reviews. She could point to no single occasion when her depression impeded her work performance. Her anxiety never made her unable to perform required tasks.
The Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA) prohibits employment discrimination against a qualified individual with a disability.
A qualified individual with a disability can sue for harassment and for being forced out of a job. The law calls this constructive discharge.
To prove a valid case the individual must show that he or she is a disabled person within the meaning of that phrase under the ADA, that he or she is qualified to perform the essential functions of the job (either with or without reasonable accommodation), and that there has been some adverse employment action against the individual which the court can interpret as unlawful discrimination.
The nurse did not have a disability, as defined by law.
UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS, EIGHTH CIRCUIT, 1998.
The nurse worked for a health insurer. One year into her employment she was assigned to the company’s ambulatory medical records review project. This meant she would make on-site quality-of-care reviews of patients’ charts at physicians’ offices around the greater St. Louis metropolitan area.
In her disability discrimination lawsuit the nurse claimed after the fact that she suffered from depression and anxiety, and therefore that it was difficult for her to go into certain parts of the city she considered dangerous.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit pointed out, however, that although the nurse occasionally mentioned to her supervisors that she suffered from depression and was seeking psychological help, she never came forward with with any reports from her doctors about her condition. The court also pointed out the nurse never gave her supervisors a doctor’s note about any necessary restrictions for her work, and that she was unable to specify any occasion when her depression actually impaired her ability to do her job.
As the court interpreted the allegations made in the lawsuit, the nurse believed she was intentionally being assigned to travel exclusively to districts of the city which would exacerbate her anxiety. The nurse mentioned her discomfort with having to go to certain parts of town to a supervisor, requested a change in the areas of town assigned as her territory, and mentioned she was seeing a psychotherapist for problems with anxiety. The supervisor, as the nurse phrased it, "brushed her off."
The nurse submitted a proposal to higher management to increase the company’s cost-effectiveness, essentially by discontinuing the practice of sending utilization-review personnel into supposed high-crime areas. This proposal was ignored, but the nurse apparently believed she had provoked hostility from management toward her.
The nurse’s supervisors became concerned about the nurse’s odd behavior, such as carrying on with an apparent voodoo ritual to keep "evil spirits" from entering her office cubicle. She also began making veiled threats toward supervisors and co-workers.
The matter came to a head, according to the court, when the nurse mentioned she had begun carrying a handgun. Her supervisors brought in an outside security consultant to sit down with them and the nurse to discuss the situation. They confirmed their suspicions she was armed with a handgun, but they were not able to get it away from her. However, while the meeting was in progress they deactivated her security card needed to get into the building’s parking garage. In fact, the nurse could not get out without assistance, and her security card was confiscated.
She went home, called her supervisors, and resigned. Then she filed suit for disability discrimination. According to the court, a court-ordered psychiatric exam in the context of the discrimination suit revealed the nurse had a schizotypal personality disorder. This is a mental illness, the court conceded, but it was not what the nurse had alleged in her lawsuit.
To rule on her allegations the nurse filed in her disability discrimination lawsuit, the court had to follow the guidelines set down by the Americans With Disabilities Act and court precedents. This nurse could not show that the depression and anxiety she alleged in her lawsuit impaired her ability to do her job.
Her depression caused difficulties in her life. Her anxiety made it hard to ride in elevators, drive and visit what she perceived as high-crime areas of the city. Neither condition, the court ruled, caused a substantial limitation of a major activity of life and thus could not be considered a disability for purposes of a disability discrimination lawsuit.
Cody v. Healthcare, 139 F. 3d 595 (8th Cir., 1998).More from nursinglaw.com
http://www.nursinglaw.com/depression-discrimination.htm
http://www.nursinglaw.com/depression3.htm
http://www.nursinglaw.com/anxiety-depression-nurse-disability.htm
http://www.nursinglaw.com/disability-discrimination-PTSD.htm