Fitness to Work & Fitness to Return to Work Evaluations
In public agencies, health care and private industry, there are times when a person’s fitness to perform his/her duties due to psychological issues and/or alcohol or drug problems needs to be assessed. At other times, a person has been off work for these issues and presents him/herself as ready to return to duties, but is he/she ready to return to work?
In these instances, often employers would prefer to have the person evaluated by someone who represents their interests as well as having compassionate concern for the employee. Lehman & Associates has been providing fitness to work evaluations for a variety of positions for many years. While our primary focus is on the public safety community, we have provided fitness to work or return to work evaluations for a variety of other municipal jobs, health care professionals and for private industry.
A fitness to work evaluation is generally a day-long process. It involves a detailed interview with one of our licensed psychologists then a series of psychological assessment instruments focused on addressing the issues presented. When the testing is completed, a second interview is held with the person being assessed to discuss follow-up issues. Often additional consultation is sought (with the person’s permission) with his/her treatment providers, if those exist. Following this process, a report is prepared for the employer providing an opinion on fitness to work and/or recommendations for what needs to be done to help the person return to productivity.
All evaluations are accomplished within HIPAA and other state and federal guidelines. John Lehman, Ph.D. & Associates provides assessment services only in these cases and not the treatment services that may be needed. This avoids any conflict of interest issues.
For more information on these evaluations please contact our office.
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