How to Get FMLA for Mental Health

The Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) can protect your job if you need to take time away due to a serious mental illness. But before you can benefit from the law, you need to know if you’re eligible. If you are, you’ll also need to familiarize yourself with the multi-step process for how to get FMLA for mental health.

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What Is FMLA?

The Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) is a federal law that provides some employees with the opportunity to take a limited amount of unpaid leave for certain medical or family-related purposes, with a guarantee that they will still have a job at the end of their leave period.

The first version of what would become the FMLA was written in 1984, but the legislation did not become law until 1993.

The FMLA allows covered employees to take up to 12 weeks of unpaid leave within a 12-month period for the reasons such as:

Birth of a child and caring for the newborn child within one year of birth
Placement oof a child for adoption or foster care, and caring for the newly placed child within one year of placement
Caring for a spouse, child, or parent who has a serious health condition
Serious health condition that makes you unable to perform the essential functions of your job
Certain other circumstances if your spouse, son, daughter, or parent is a covered military member on covered active duty

The FMLA also permits covered employees to take up to 26 weeks of leave during a 12-month period to care for a member of the U.S. military who has a serious illness or injury. To qualify for this provision, you must be the military member’s spouse, child, parent, or next of kin.

Can Everyone Use FMLA?

Before you spend too much time investigating how to get FMLA for mental health, you should first confirm if you’re eligible for the protections that the law provides. To qualify for FMLA, both you and your employer must meet certain criteria.

Your employer is subject to FLMA if they fall into one of the following three categories:

Private companies that employ at least 50 people for at least 20 weeks in the current and/or previous calendar year.
Public agencies, including federal, state, and local government employers, regardless of how many people work at the agency
Local educational organizations, including public school boards, public elementary and secondary schools, and private elementary and secondary schools, regardless of how many employees they have

If you work for one of the employer types listed above, you will be eligible for FMLA coverage if you meet the following requirements:

You have worked for this employer for at least 12 months.
You’ve worked at least 1,250 hours for that employer in the 12 months before your FMLA leave begins.
You work at a location where your employer has at least 50 employees within a 75-mile radius. (This requirement only applies to private employers.)

How to Get FMLA for Mental Health

Confirming that you and your employer are both covered by FMLA is an important step – but simply taking that step doesn’t mean you can automatically take unpaid leave. So, how do you get FMLA for mental health?

As described by the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL), the process involves:

Step 1: You are required to notify your employer when you know that you’ll need to take leave.
Step 2: Your employer has five business days to notify you if you are eligible for FMLA leave.
- If their notification indicates that you are eligible, then they must provide you with your FMLA rights and responsibilities, as well as any request for certification.
- If they request a certification, move on to step 3. If they do not request a certification, move on to step 4.
Step 3: You have to provide employer with a completed certification. This is a document that is completed by a qualified healthcare provider, attesting that either you or your loved one has a serious illness.
Step 4: Your employer must notify you whether your leave has been designated as FMLA-compliant within five business days.
- If your leave has not been designated as FMLA leave, then it is not FMLA-protected.
- If your leave has been designated as FMLA leave, move on to steps 5 and 6.
Step 5: Your leave is FMLA-protected, and you can take up to 12 unpaid weeks away from work.
Step 6: When you return to work, your employer must return you to your same job, or to a job that is nearly identical to the one you had before you went on FMLA leave.

What Mental Health Conditions Are Covered by FMLA?

Eligibility for FMLA isn’t determined by which type of mental health disorder a person has. Instead, your ability to take protected unpaid lead depends on the severity of your (or your loved one’s) condition.

Severity can be established by either the functional impact that the disorder has caused or the type of treatment it requires. As defined in the FMLA, a disorder is appropriately severe if it is:

A serious mental illness that requires inpatient care, such as in an addiction treatment center or an eating disorder facility
A disruptive mental health condition that causes least three consecutive days of incapacitation and requires ongoing treatment, such as attending multiple outpatient therapy sessions
An ongoing mental health concern such as anxiety or depression that causes recurring periods of incapacitation and requires treatment at least two times per year

Where Can I Learn More About FMLA?

The Department of Labor website is a great place to learn more about the FMLA, including how to use the law when you need to take temporarily step away from your job to address a mental health concern. Pages on the DOL website that may be particularly helpful include:

Find Mental Health Treatment in Atlanta

If you or a loved have developed a mental health condition that has affected your ability to work, please know that help is available.

North Atlanta Behavioral Health is a trusted provider of personalized outpatient care for adults who have anxiety, depression, bipolar disorder, and other disruptive mental illnesses. Treatment options at our center in Atlanta, GA, include a partial hospitalization program (PHP), an intensive outpatient program (IOP), and an outpatient program (OP).

To learn more about how we can help you or your loved one, or to schedule a free consultation, please visit our Admissions page or call us today.