I can only relate my own experience. The Sgt thought I had PTSD symptoms following a bizarre lethal force incident. It went up the chain, I was sent to the EAP shrink who spent the next two years billing the city for I'm not sure what for exactly and which really messed with my confidence in my own decisions. Finally I told the chief I was planning to take some time to deal with issues and never worked again. He called me at home and told me not to come back. It seems he talked to a buddy on the FBI who told him he might have liability issues if he let me report for duty again. But the Chief was quite longwinded on the great ways he'd take care of me. The city was huge on promises but smoke and wind on action. The city filed on my behalf with the state and THEN told me they had done so and if I wanted the representation I could go along or take a hike. I went along. At the first meeting with the state, no one from the Chiefs office showed up. Not the promised lawyer, not the chief, not the city atty. The state employees laughed at me and told me I had been had and needed a lawyer. That was as big a mistake as any. A lawyer needs to bill and that means allowing the shrink all the time he thought he needed to either evaluate me or pay off his Mercedes. Either way, I wound up talking to the most incompetent man I have ever known every Wednesday for months. He'd just stare at me until I'd talk and if I didn't, I'd get a letter from the city saying I'd be round filed with nothing if I didn't play the game. My lawyer took about half of the less than fifteen grand the state paid me. I haven't worked steady since. I've had employers refuse to allow me to take a day off for months in a row even after I told HR that I needed to see my dr. about problems with my meds. 'Couldn't spare me, not even for an afternoon. Been awful busy etc' for months. The afternoon I went to see my Dr without permission was the end of that job too. Don't just count on the laws protection, be sure of what is and isn't law where you need the law to apply.
Since anything pretending to be treatment ended with the check, it was many years before medications entered the picture and I lost many jobs each a bit worse than the previous one, until I finally saw a competent Dr. and he found a combination of meds that work. It's about too late for me though, I'm almost unemployable now. After two years being unemployed the last two HR people I did get an interview with were kind enough to tell me so. They said they'd "like" to hire me, but they could never sell my work history "upstairs". Whatever that means. My last boss was a disabled Viet Nam vet who was quite familiar. He was great to work for and to know in general, but the shop folded, and he passed soon after. It's been more than two years. This is the US, so it may be different there, but for me it was like walking into a minefield. Get somebody who has actually been there for advice and trust no one in charge or who stands to get paid from this. My advice based on my experience, I hope your experience is different. Be careful.
