Forced back to work From WSIB

Disability Insurance
1

I am a 57 year old first responder with 30 years service in Ontario.
I was diagnosed with PTSD by my psychiatrist and in the September of 2020 I went off from work on WSIB.
WSIB sent me for an assessment at company A that winter and my diagnosis was confirmed. I did not continue with the company that did the assessment as I would not agree to the terms of their program.
I was seeing a psychologist during this time as well as my psychiatrist.
I was sent for another assessment by WSIB to company B. My diagnosis was again confirmed. A program was suggested that is affiliated with WSIB for First responders. I completed the 6 month program.
I just wasn’t in sync with the psychologist. After completing CBT program with him. I just wasn’t in sync with his style and he did not have time to take me on further. I ended our sessions and found another psychologist that I a have been seeing since.
The psychiatrist, psychologist, company A and B all diagnosed me with PTSD. All agreed that I have severe PTSD and that due to years of service and my age that recovery success is low.
As recommended by the treatment program I was assigned an Occupational Therapist. I worked with the first OT until he left the company and was assigned another that I have worked with. They helped with coping skills. I am not interested in exposure therapy so they have ended our sessions.
Both my psychologist and psychiatrist have documented and recommended not to return to work and have submitted my restrictions to WSIB. They include: no conflict, no time constraints, no first responder duties, no shift work, no loud noises and no confined spaces to name a few.
Despite this recommendation from my Doctors, WSIB has put me in touch with a return to work specialist. They said they will do an assessment of what type of work I can do as returning to my first responder job is not an option.

Can they force me into another job? Can they override my psychologist and psychiatrist recommendations of no work?

2

It doesn’t sound like they are forcing you back to work (yet) or overriding your Psychologist/Psychiatrist. It sounds like your doctors didn’t recommend “no work” unless I read it wrong? It sounds like they gave a list of your limitations to your employer. This is normal. They are going to do an assessment to see what other jobs, if any, you can do. For instance, they may be able to offer you a job that you can do, such as a work from home desk job that you can do at your own leisure (payroll or something). Once they tell you what jobs they are offering, then you would get approval from your doctor and it would go from there.

3

Here in BC some people in similar situations get assigned to swap the ambulances out at the service depot and return them to the station. Depending on your symptoms you may or may not be able to do something like that.

There is rapidly exploding work on PTSD at the moment, I hope you are able to find some relief soon. My cousin got tremendous relief from a psilocybin based therapy…

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4

They asked what my permanent restrictions would be . Both my doctors made it clear not to return to work. Due to my symptoms .

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6

They’ll still do an assessment. It’s part of the checklist of things they do. They’ll also assess for retraining opportunities. Do not take anything on before speaking with your medical team.

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7

Sorry to hear you’re going through this. Our systems are so broken. And so many psychiatrists and psychologists are not trauma-informed. Someone I knew a while back did somatic-based therapy (Peter Levine method) for his PTSD and had good success with that and his depression. He said CBT did nothing for him either. I wish you all the best.

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