As some of you may know from my posting in social, I started a new job yesterday. It's an entry level position but with a great organization that offers great benefits, pension, room for advancement, and wellness perks.

There is however one downside. Occupational Health questionnaire Form B. Form A is standard for all hospitals and deals with making sure your immunizations are up to date - fair enough. Form B goes into your complete health history. It asks for a complete list of all medications that you're on, a bunch of different medical history conditions, including seizures, motor vehicle accidents, bone or joint injuries, mental illness, and specifically anxiety & depression. It also asks if you're under a Dr's care for anything and if you require accomodation.

I've consulted my lawyer, a friend who knows a lot about privacy legislation, a patients rights representative at my psych hospital, an HR professional who I know who ran it by a labour lawyer, and my addictions Dr. The overwhelming consensus is that the questions are a clear violation of privacy legislation and that I am within my rights to refuse to fill out the form. This however will get me branded as a S*** disturber, and I'm pretty sure ensure that I don't make it out of the probationary period. If I fill in the form honestly one look at my meds will tell you that I'm an alcoholic psych patient. I've had 2 withdrawal seizures and been hospitalized 4 times in the past 4 years - twice for addiction and twice for mental health. In theory the information is kept confidential within occupational health, but I don't trust that 100%.

The ironic part is I don't particularly care who knows that I'm in recovery or that I'm in ongoing treatment. My attitude is stigma will never go away unless we're willing to talk about it, yet I have a real fear of discrimination. There's a big difference between who I choose to tell and being forced to disclose to my employer.

I have until my occupational health appointment at 2:15 tomorrow to decide if I'm going to refuse to fill out the form, or if I'm going to answer it honestly.

I really don't know what I'm going to do.

--splitimage