Do care assistants need a medical?

sortofwinning

Hi, I'm wondering do you have to go through a medical exam to be a care assistant?


I've just been bullied out of a job after having three psychotic breakdowns in the past year. I had psychosis before the bullying started but it was under control, but then I went mad three times in the past year or so due to the bullying, and ended up being sectioned for one breakdown, put in a psychiatric treatment facility for another, and for the most recent one, I had the joy of being picked up twice by the police. I wasn't arrested so I don't have a criminal record or anything. The police knew I was mad due to my appearance and actions so they brought me home the first time and to A&E the second time.


But all of the above made me resign from my job not too long ago.


I will not get a reference from my ex-employer because I did get a solicitor involved and also accused several of the managers of covering up the bullying. I had hard evidence of this and presented it to the head of the company at a time when I was trying to hold on to the job and needed the bullying to stop, but then I had the third breakdown and just ended up resigning.


Obviously I could get one of those "She was here working between [date] and [date]" references, but that's all.


So my plan is to do voluntary work for a few months so that I can get a reference from my voluntary employers, and this will hopefully get rid of the no-reference-from-previous-employer problem. If the future employer still wants a reference from my previous employer then I'm kind of screwed, but I thought I would just keep going in the voluntary work until the future employer no longer thought about contacting the ex-employer. However, I'm still left with a big problem if I apply for a job that needs a medical. Nobody will hire me if I have to tell them - before interview - about my three psychotic breakdowns in the past year.


I am very much aware that employers cannot discriminate due to disabilities in an obvious manner, but they can certainly do it in a surreptitious manner. So I can't apply for any job that will ask me for medical details before interview. If they ask me for them after interview, that's no problem, because if they tell me I've got the job and then tell me after my medical that I don't have the job, then I've got evidence they discriminated. But if they ask me medical details before interview and then discriminate (by inventing something like, "you didn't answer question no 7 correctly"), then I've got no evidence.


So I want a job where I won't be asked for medical evidence before interview and I have heard that care assistant jobs are fairly easy to get, so could anyone answer me the question about care assistants needing medicals? If there are any care assistants reading this and the answer is yes, are there cases where you don't get asked about anything medical until you have been offered the job?


I have above average qualifications so I won't have any problems meeting the criteria, but have worked mostly in admin til now. I'm planning on doing some kind of voluntary work that involves something similar to care work, and then saying at interview (if I get one) that I really liked the voluntary work and that's why I'm now applying for care assistant work. I can't apply for anything more suited to my qualifications because when I tried that, I got asked medical questions before the interview and had to cancel the interview. The harder the jobs are to obtain, the more thorough they are before the interview, so I'm trying to look at jobs where they aren't quite so thorough.


Thanks for any help.

Undervalued

sortofwinning wrote: »

Hi, I'm wondering do you have to go through a medical exam to be a care assistant?


I've just been bullied out of a job after having three psychotic breakdowns in the past year. I had psychosis before the bullying started but it was under control, but then I went mad three times in the past year or so due to the bullying, and ended up being sectioned for one breakdown, put in a psychiatric treatment facility for another, and for the most recent one, I had the joy of being picked up twice by the police. I wasn't arrested so I don't have a criminal record or anything. The police knew I was mad due to my appearance and actions so they brought me home the first time and to A&E the second time.


But all of the above made me resign from my job not too long ago.


I will not get a reference from my ex-employer because I did get a solicitor involved and also accused several of the managers of covering up the bullying. I had hard evidence of this and presented it to the head of the company at a time when I was trying to hold on to the job and needed the bullying to stop, but then I had the third breakdown and just ended up resigning.


Obviously I could get one of those "She was here working between [date] and [date]" references, but that's all.


So my plan is to do voluntary work for a few months so that I can get a reference from my voluntary employers, and this will hopefully get rid of the no-reference-from-previous-employer problem. If the future employer still wants a reference from my previous employer then I'm kind of screwed, but I thought I would just keep going in the voluntary work until the future employer no longer thought about contacting the ex-employer. However, I'm still left with a big problem if I apply for a job that needs a medical. Nobody will hire me if I have to tell them - before interview - about my three psychotic breakdowns in the past year.


I am very much aware that employers cannot discriminate due to disabilities in an obvious manner, but they can certainly do it in a surreptitious manner. So I can't apply for any job that will ask me for medical details before interview. If they ask me for them after interview, that's no problem, because if they tell me I've got the job and then tell me after my medical that I don't have the job, then I've got evidence they discriminated. But if they ask me medical details before interview and then discriminate (by inventing something like, "you didn't answer question no 7 correctly"), then I've got no evidence.


So I want a job where I won't be asked for medical evidence before interview and I have heard that care assistant jobs are fairly easy to get, so could anyone answer me the question about care assistants needing medicals? If there are any care assistants reading this and the answer is yes, are there cases where you don't get asked about anything medical until you have been offered the job?


I have above average qualifications so I won't have any problems meeting the criteria, but have worked mostly in admin til now. I'm planning on doing some kind of voluntary work that involves something similar to care work, and then saying at interview (if I get one) that I really liked the voluntary work and that's why I'm now applying for care assistant work. I can't apply for anything more suited to my qualifications because when I tried that, I got asked medical questions before the interview and had to cancel the interview. The harder the jobs are to obtain, the more thorough they are before the interview, so I'm trying to look at jobs where they aren't quite so thorough.


Thanks for any help.

Any employer can make passing a medical a condition of getting a job. The only exception would be if they were unlawfully discriminating against somebody who was disabled or pregnant.

No law (just by way of a silly example) prevents them from refusing to employ anybody who has had their appendix out!

elsien

In my organisation, then the medical questions and any potential referral to occupational health would come after the interview but before any job offer is made final. You can disclose a disability prior to interview if you wish.

I would suggest you consider the physical and emotional toll that there can be in care work and whether (for your own sake and that of the vulnerable people you will be working with) whether it is the right job for you. Doing it just because you think you can get in if you have no aptitude or enthusiasm for the job is wrong and not fair on the people you will be supporting.


It is also not necessarily discriminatory for the job offer to be withdrawn following the medical questionnaire. If you are considered to have a disability the employer has to consider if you are able to do the job with reasonable adjustments. If you can't, or the adjustments needed are not reasonable then the offer can lawfully still be withdrawn.

It's not a get out of jail free card.

missbiggles1

Are you really sure that care work is suitable for you as it can be very stressful?

polgara

I know its not what you asked..but are you fit enough to undertake this type of role? Its generally low paid, time pressured and can be extremely stressful dealing with, at times, difficult clients.

elsien

You will also need a DBS check. And my organisation would require a full work history with any gaps explained and references from the last employer.
No-one is going to say after a gap of a few months that you don't need a reference from them after all.
In addition having qualifications in admin does not mean you will meet the criteria for care work, however good those qualifications are. It's about personal skills and empathy as much as anything. You may be sworn at. You may be hit or kicked. You may have residents saying some personal and upsetting comments. You may have allegations made against you. You need the resilience to deal with that and to remain professional.

Undervalued

elsien wrote: »

In my organisation, then the medical questions and any potential referral to occupational health would come after the interview but before any job offer is made final. You can disclose a disability prior to interview if you wish.

I would suggest you consider the physical and emotional toll that there can be in care work and whether (for your own sake and that of the vulnerable people you will be working with) whether it is the right job for you. Doing it just because you think you can get in if you have no aptitude or enthusiasm for the job is wrong and not fair on the people you will be supporting.


It is also not necessarily discriminatory for the job offer to be withdrawn following the medical questionnaire. If you are considered to have a disability the employer has to consider if you are able to do the job with reasonable adjustments. If you can't, or the adjustments needed are not reasonable then the offer can lawfully still be withdrawn.

It's not a get out of jail free card.

I agree.

However, unless I am missing something, nothing says the OP is disabled (for employment law purposes).

Whilst mental health issues can be a disability it is not automatic by any means. Obviously if they are not disabled and "just" have a history of ill health then the employer does not have to make any adjustments at all.

elsien

Undervalued wrote: »

I agree.

However, unless I am missing something, nothing says the OP is disabled (for employment law purposes).

Whilst mental health issues can be a disability it is not automatic by any means. Obviously if they are not disabled and "just" have a history of ill health then the employer does not have to make any adjustments at all.

No, but I think the OP is looking at it from the disability perspective as they say "I am very much aware that employers cannot discriminate due to disabilities in an obvious manner, but they can certainly do it in a surreptitious manner. So I can't apply for any job that will ask me for medical details before interview."

sangie595

elsien wrote: »

No, but I think the OP is looking at it from the disability perspective as they say "I am very much aware that employers cannot discriminate due to disabilities in an obvious manner, but they can certainly do it in a surreptitious manner. So I can't apply for any job that will ask me for medical details before interview."

Alternatively, one could take it that the OP may be a risk to clients. I understand that the OP says they were bullied. Whether or not they were is not relevant. But they had three psychotic breaks in a year - twice picked up by the police, once sectioned and another time placed into a treatment facility. In the employers shoes I would have to think VERY carefully about whether this person was a suitable and safe person to entrust with the care of vulnerable people - and the answer, without any discrimination involved at all, would be likely to be that they are not. If stress brings on this sort of condition, then care work, which can be very stressful, is simply not the right employment for the OP. So I would be quite concerned that the OP is attempting to cover up the fact that they have this condition and that they have had a significant number of incidents in the recent past.

One might also expect that the DBS might pick it up. The OP may not have been arrested, but this is relevant information for the police to disclose.

Undervalued

elsien wrote: »

No, but I think the OP is looking at it from the disability perspective as they say "I am very much aware that employers cannot discriminate due to disabilities in an obvious manner, but they can certainly do it in a surreptitious manner. So I can't apply for any job that will ask me for medical details before interview."

Yes, I agree that is how the OP appears to be looking at it but they may well not realise what constitutes a disability for this purpose.

Lots of people erroneously believe that an employer cannot discriminate on the grounds of illness which, however serious, is not true unless it ticks the disability box.

LKRDN_Morgan

sortofwinning wrote: »

So I want a job where I won't be asked for medical evidence before interview and I have heard that care assistant jobs are fairly easy to get.

Easy to get because caring is low paid, back breaking, emotional and stressful.
Not a lot of people can cut it which is why there is such a high staff turnover.

Go into caring because you want to. Not because you think you can fly under the radar.