It is perhaps the final vestige of societal taboo; for, at what point the human animal realized that self-destruction became an option is open for debate. In the Animal Kingdom, it is rare to find species openly seeking to end life; the struggle to survive and the Darwinian inherency for self-preservation and survival remains as vibrant as ever.
Being diagnosed with “suicidal ideation” is normally associated with psychiatric conditions of Major Depression and Generalized Anxiety, where the acceptable level of stress-tolerance exceeds the capacity to withstand. Each individual is a unique creature; in this cookie-cutting mold of society where people get lost in the importance of position, fame, accolades and a false sense of admiration, it becomes commonplace to question one’s sense of worth and value.
Psychiatry has never been a perfect science; some even question the validity of its approach, as it has now become overwhelmingly a pharmacological event, with some semblance of therapeutic intervention thrown in as an afterthought.
For Federal employees and U.S. Postal Service workers who are contemplating filing for Federal Disability Retirement benefits through the U.S. Office of Personnel Management, whether the Federal or Postal employee is under FERS, CSRS or even CSRS Offset, the existence of suicidal ideations (or otherwise simply known as “having suicidal thoughts”) is often lost in the compendium of diagnosed psychiatric conditions, including Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), where a significant event has intervened which has resulted in traumatic reverberations in one’s life; Anxiety (or more officially identified as Generalized Anxiety Disorder); Major Depression; Bipolar Disorder, with spectrum symptoms of manic phases and depressive states; as well as schizophrenia and paranoia.
For relevance to filing for Federal Disability Retirement benefits through OPM, the existence of suicidal ideations is often one more indicia of the seriousness of the diagnosed psychiatric conditions, but should never be determinative in whether one’s psychiatric condition is “serious enough” in order to be eligible for Federal Disability Retirement benefits. Indeed, there are many, many Federal and Postal employees who file for OPM Disability Retirement benefits, who suffer from Major Depression, Anxiety, PTSD and other forms of psychiatric conditions, without ever suffering from suicidal ideations, and yet are fully qualified for, and become entitled to, Federal Disability Retirement benefits.
Further, as Federal Disability Retirement is based upon the algorithm of showing the nexus between one’s medical condition and the positional requirements of one’s Federal or Postal job, the impeding aspect of suicidal ideations may be negligible. Rather, from a medical standpoint, it is one more factor of concern and consternation within a long list of diagnoses and symptoms which cumulatively form the basis for an effective Federal Disability Retirement application.
Sincerely,
Robert R. McGill, Esquire
Filed under: Mental/Nervous Condition, Specific Medical Conditions, Uncategorized | Tagged: awol termination federal disability, can a federal employee qualify for disability for stress?, cases of major depression in the post office, civil service medical retirement, columbus ohio psychiatric medical claims for federal employees, combat ptsd and fers, CSRS disability retirement federal attorney, depression federal employee, disability for anxiety disorder opm, disability impact statement opm, disability retirement opm forms, disabling mental nervous conditions, disciplinary actions against seriously ill federal workers, dod civilian disability retirement, federal attorney to handle stress related disabilities, federal disability retirement percentages concept?, federal employees and ptsd disabling condition, federal government disability and stress, federal government reasonable accommodation denied, federal hypersomnia disability fers, federal medical retirement, federal stress disability criteria, fers disability attorney helping tampa area federal employees and the rest of the country federal civilian injured off-duty unable to perform duties, fers disability retirement and va disability compensation issues, fers psychological disability, getting fers disability and anxiety, harassment and bullying by federal government supervisors, health insurance when separating from federal employment, hostile work environment causing stress in civil service, hostile work environment for federal workers, hostile work environment in the postal service, how does a federal employee applies to opm disability retirement, how to fill out for disability if postal employee non occupational, how to live while trying to retire medically with fed government, letter for employee retirement due to illness, long lwop for nervous or mental conditions, long sick leave because of stress in the federal government, long term medical leave from post office and what are my options, many federal disability retirement cases are situational at the beginning, medical condition and federal jobs, medical narrative report for dol and opm disability retirement, mental condition in opm disability filing, mental health therapist, mental or nervous disabling conditions, nationwide representation of federal employees, need help with my fers disability retirement, opm medical reports and casual relationship arguments, opm medical retirement approved, opm medical retirement forms, owcp depression us postal service, owcp disability retirement, owcp stress claims, partially disabled federal employee performance termination, performance improvement plan for disabled federal employee, postal stress and depression can be situational in nature, psychiatric disorder caused by a hostile work environment, ptsd fers retirement, removed from the postal service for psychological reasons, resignation letter federal employment, situational disability and the hostile environment claim, situational federal disability, ssdi and owcp and opm disability retirement considerations before resigning under fers, steps to get owcp disability pension, stress disability for federal employees, stress in federal jobs, the dangers of getting your opm claim situational, the psychiatrist and opm medical retirement, us department of labor owcp med retirement, us postal employees with depression, usmc veteran and civilian employee wants to retire under fers for ptsd forum service, usps and bullying by managers, USPS disability retirement, usps employees with lupus, usps medical assessment questionnaire, usps stress related disability retirement, va police on light duty, warning to federal employees about situational disability, what are my entitlements as a federal government employee with a total disability?, what forms do I need to file for disability retirement for fers employees and where to get help, when resigning a federal job because of long term illness, why would opm neglect my dr's disability request? | Leave a comment »
Federal Employee Medical Retirement: The Potential Drawback
One of the potential drawbacks in pursuing collateral employment issues concomitantly with a Federal Disability Retirement application is that, as such employment issues are active and clearly in the collective consciousness of the Agency, the Supervisor, and all involved, the issue itself often gets sneaked into a Federal Disability Retirement application under FERS or CSRS via the back door.
This is not necessarily a negative thing, but can be a potential drawback if the Supervisor insists upon inserting the details of the collateral action in the Supervisor’s Statement. Whether such insertion and accompaniment with a Federal Disability Retirement application is “proper” or not, is a separate matter. From the perspective of the applicant who is awaiting a decision from the Office of Personnel Management, it matters not as to the proper actions of the Agency. What such actions by the rogue supervisor does, is to deflect the focus away from the medical issue, and redirects the reviewing official/representative at OPM that the “reason” for one’s early retirement is not one based upon a medical issue, but rather, is because of stresses or other factors caused by a hostile work environment, harassment issues, etc. This is normally a proposition which can be easily sidestepped, by arguing to OPM that whether or not such workplace issues have any basis or not, the treating doctor has nevertheless stated X, Y & Z. However, it can still be problematic, and that is why collateral workplace issues should be avoided, if at all possible.
Sincerely, Robert R. McGill, Esquire
Filed under: OPM Disability Actors, Theory and Practice: Tips and Strategies for a Successful Application | Tagged: avoiding using the "hostile environment" term in your opm disability claim, cases where the opm claims situational disability, collateral issues while on the federal disability retirement application process, CSRS disability retirement federal attorney, dealing with an harassment issue and the usps disability application, disability eeoc cases against federal agencies, discrimination against disabled federal workers and eeoc, eeo complaints and workers comp, federal disability attorney, fers disability application supervisor comments, FERS disability retirement, harassment in the Postal Service, harassment is not a medical issue, hostile work environment federal government, law firm representing clients in opm disability law all across america, many federal disability retirement cases are situational at the beginning, mixing discrimination complaints and medical issues in the usps disability retirement application, mixing your federal disability retirement claim with other lawsuits, nationwide representation of federal employees, neutralizing negative statements from supervisor's statements in sf 3112b, OPM disability retirement, owcp disability retirement, postal service disability retirement, potential problems with your fers disability application, psychiatric disorder caused by a hostile work environment, pursuing collateral issues besides csrs disability retirement, remembering that opm disability retirement is primarily a medical issue, representing federal employees in and outside the country, situational disability and the hostile environment claim, Standard Form 3112b, supervisors' revenge against Postal workers, the dangers of getting your opm claim situational, the injured federal worker and the unfair supervisor, the limited power of a supervisor in the fers disability retirement process, the unfair postal supervisor, the venom of the supervisor, unequal treatment issues in the federal workplace, USPS disability retirement, why the sf 3112b matters less than the doctor's statements, your supervisor and federal disability retirement | Leave a comment »