Evaluating Mental Health Disability in the Workplace: Model, Process, and Analysis

As many as one in four adults in the workforce will suffer from psychiatric illness in a given year. Such illness can have serious consequences -- job loss, lawsuits, workplace violence—yet the effects of mental health issues on job functioning are rarely covered in clinical training. In addition, clinicians are often asked to provide opinions on an employee’s fitness for work or an evaluation for disability benefits, only to find themselves embroiled in complex legal and administrative conflicts. A unique collaboration between a renowned clinical professor of psychiatry and a noted legal expert, Evaluating Mental Health Disability in the Workplace approaches the topic from two distinct areas: the legal context and issues relevant to disability and disability-related evaluations, and the interplay of factors in the relationship between work and psychiatric illness. From this dual perspective, the authors advocate for higher professional standards ensuring that employers, evaluees, or third parties are provided with the most reliable information.

Key features of the book:

• A robust assessment model of psychological disability in the workplace
• Practice guidelines for conducting workplace mental health disability evaluations
• Legal and ethical aspects of employment evaluations, especially as they differ from clinical procedure
• Examination of the process of psychiatric disability development
• Issues specific to evaluations for Social Security, Workers’ Compensation, and other disability benefit programs
• Review of relevant administrative and case law.

As an introduction to these complex issues or for the further improvement of evaluation skills, Evaluating Mental Health Disability in the Workplace is a timely reference for psychiatrists, psychologists, forensic mental health specialists, andattorneys in this field.

Liza H. Gold, M.D., is a board certified clinical and forensic psychiatrist. Dr. Gold is Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at Georgetown University Medical Center in Washington, D.C. and Associate Director of Georgetown's Program in Psychiatry and Law. After graduating from Harvard/Radcliffe College, she went on to earn a Master of Philosophy degree from Cambridge University and receive her M.D. from New York University School of Medicine. Dr. Gold is the author of Sexual Harrassment: Psychiatric Assessment in Employment Litigation, which won the 2006 Manfred S. Guttmacher Award and was also honored by the American Psychiatric Association and American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law for best contribution to forensic psychiatric literature for the year. In addition, Dr. Gold is coeditor of The American Psychiatric Textbook of Forensic Psychiatry and its accompanying study guide. She has also authored numerous articles and book chapters, and has lectured nationally and internationally on topics related to clinical and forensic psychiatry. She has a private practice in Arlington, VA.

Daniel W. Shuman, J.D., is the M.D. Anderson Foundation Endowed Professor of Health Law at Southern Methodist University School of Law. In addition, Dr. Shuman serves as an adjunct Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Texas, Southwestern Medical School and an adjunct Professor of Psychology at the University of North Texas. He is member of the American Law Institute and former chair of the Association of American Law Schools sections on Law and Mental Disability and Law and Medicine. Prior to joining the faculty of the SMU School of Law, he served as an Assistant Attorney General for the State of Arizona and a legal services attorney in Tucson, Arizona. Dr. Shuman is the author of more than 5 books and more than sixty articles and book chapters. His 1986 release, Psychiatric and Psychological Evidence, was the winner of the 1988 American Psychiatric Association's Manfred S. Guttmacher Award.