Mental Health, Wellbeing, and a Return to Work
This section will provide useful links and sources to help support your mental health after, or during GBS. If you’re a carer or have experienced a loved one going through an illness it can also be a traumatic time, and these links may also help you.
We also discuss getting back to work and how to communicate with your employer.
Mental health & wellbeing
With all the changes in your health it is not uncommon to feel anxious or angry. An acute stress reaction is recognised as being a normal part of the process of adjusting to a life change, and it can often help to talk things through with a partner or close friend. However, please seek advice and help from your GP if you are finding it difficult to cope or to sleep, or if you are feeling overwhelmed emotionally.
The impact of being severely affected by a sudden, frightening and potentially life-changing condition such as GBS can leave people with symptoms of PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder). It can develop immediately, or many months or even years after a traumatic event.
If you are concerned about low mood, irritability, panic attacks, anxiety, flashbacks, physical sensations such as trembling or sweating, poor concentration or sleeping problems, please talk to your GP about getting some counselling.
Other sources of support – Mental Health
5 steps to mental wellbeing
https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/stress-anxiety-depression/improve-mental-wellbeing
Mindfulness
Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder
https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/post-traumatic-stress-disorder-ptsd/
Mental health and wellbeing
https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/stress-anxiety-depression/
MIND
Young Minds
Sexual Relationships
GBS, CIDP and associated inflammatory neuropathies can bring on problems in any relationship, and sexual relationships are not excluded. Dealing with a long-term illness or disability can put a great strain on a relationship, particularly when one partner is partially or totally dependent on the other. Even without the actual physical disability, the emotional upheaval can interfere with a couple’s sex life and this can be difficult to talk about. This can mean that the once close, intimate relationship can become distant and stressful for both partners. Help is available so speak to your GP or a relationship counsellor.
Relate https://www.relate.org.uk/
Getting back to work
When someone is ready to return to work after an absence, the employer should have a procedure they follow, or an Occupational Health service. You can check your workplace’s absence policy for this. Your workplace might have a policy for meeting with employees after absences.
Back to Work: After long-term absence
If there’s been a long absence or the employee has an ongoing health condition, it’s a good idea for the employer and employee to meet and:
- make sure the employee is ready to return to work
- talk about any work updates that happened while they were off
- look at any recommendations from the employee’s doctor
- see if they need any support
- if the employee has a disability, see if changes are needed in the workplace to remove or reduce any disadvantages (‘reasonable adjustments’)
- consider a referral to a medical service such as occupational health
- discuss an employee assistance programme (EAP) if it’s available
- agree on a plan that suits you both, for example a phased return to work
Back to Work: Making reasonable adjustments
If an employee has a disability, by law their employer must consider making ‘reasonable adjustments’ if needed to help them return to work.
Reasonable adjustments could include making changes to the employee’s:
- workstation or working equipment
- working hours
- duties or tasks
This can help:
- get people back to work quicker
- prevent any further problems
For the best course of action, the employer should take advice from:
- the employee themself
- the employee’s doctor
- their Occupational Health adviser
Back to Work: Phased return to work
A ‘phased return to work’ is when someone who’s been absent might need to come back to work on:
- reduced hours
- lighter duties
- different duties
For example, after a:
- long-term illness
- serious injury
- bereavement
The employer or their HR manager and the employee should agree on a plan for how long this will be for.
For example, they could agree to review how things are going after a month and then decide to increase the working hours or duties, or they might decide they need to stay reduced for longer.
The employer or HR manager should continue to regularly review the employee’s health and wellbeing in the workplace and make new adjustments if necessary.
Back to Work: Pay during a phased return to work
If the employee returns to their normal duties but on reduced hours, they should get their normal rate of pay for those hours they work.
For the time they’re not able to work, they should get sick pay if they’re entitled to it.
If the employee is doing lighter duties, it’s up to the employer and employee to agree on a rate of pay. It’s a good idea to make sure this agreement is put in writing.
This information is provided by ACAS (the Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service).
Further information regarding absence and returning to work is available on the ACAS website:
Welcome to our Guillain-Barré Syndrome Information Hub.
Here we breakdown what is happening to you or a loved in simple but proper terms. Our information is sourced from our Medical Advisory Board, medical texts, and recognised support providers.
If you have any questions after reading this that you feel haven’t been answered. Please get in touch with us, we will strive to point you in the right direction.
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Mental Health, Well Being, and Work following Guillain-Barré Syndrome (GBS)
Contains information on how to care for your mental health whether you’ve experienced GBS or a loved one had GBS. We discuss sexual relationships, before a section on returning to work – how to approach and talk to your employer after an absence.