The Family and Medical Leave Act is a federal government act enacted in 1993 with the goal of giving employees access to unpaid leave for medical and family reasons. Though the most common use of the act for unplanned and unpaid leave is for medical reasons, many people wonder if it can be used for mental health purposes.

DISCLAIMER: This article is for informational and educational purposes only and should not be considered medical or psychological advice. The information presented here is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any mental health condition or replace professional therapeutic care. Every individual's experience with trauma and mental health is unique. Please consult with a qualified mental health professional, therapist, or healthcare provider to determine the most appropriate treatment approach for your specific situation. If you are experiencing a mental health crisis or emergency, please contact your local emergency services or crisis hotline immediately.

How the FMLA Works

The FMLA allows qualifying employees of covered employers up to 12 weeks of unpaid leave without fear of repercussions. While you aren’t paid during this leave of absence, you don’t have to fear losing your job during that leave.

There are, however, some significant caveats, so it’s important to know how the FMLA process works, whether you’re covered, and whether there could still be repercussions down the road.

As always, a disclaimer: we’re not lawyers or employment specialists, and you shouldn’t take specific advice from a general blog post. While we can and will do our best to help you in the ways we’re able to do so, legal advice isn’t one of those ways. If you are one of our patients or want to become one, you can call us directly.

What is a Covered Employer?

First, it’s worth knowing if your employer is covered by the FMLA and whether or not they have to obey it.

Covered employers are:

• All public agencies, including government agencies and schools.
• Private employers, if they had 50+ employees in 20+ workweeks in the current or preceding calendar year.

This essentially means that small employers and short-season businesses with narrow business seasons are exempt from the act. It’s a minor carve-out to prevent FMLA from being used in situations where a 12-week absence would be most of the business season, or for businesses that are too small to retain employees who can’t work.

Who are Qualifying Employees?

Qualifying employees are employees who have worked for the covered employer for at least 12 months and have worked at least 1,250 hours for that employer in the 12 months prior to the FMLA application. That works out to be about 24 hours per week on average. If your employer hasn’t kept good track of your hours, the burden is on them to prove you didn’t meet the minimum, instead of on you to prove you did.

Additionally, the employee must work at or for a location where the employer has at least 50 employees within a 75-mile radius. For Detroit, that covers as far south as places like Bowling Green and Sandusky, as far west as just outside of Lansing, and as far north as Marlette, Lexington, Flint, and Owosso.

There’s good news if you’re a remote worker: your home is not the relevant location here. Instead, FMLA considers the location you report to or where your assignments come from. If you live in Detroit but work for a company based in California, it would be their California office that is evaluated for those requirements. This was clarified in a memo from the Department of Labor in 2023.

What Protection Does FMLA Offer?

The FMLA protects you from being fired for your medical needs or otherwise punished because of them. You can’t be fired because of the need to take leave. You also still maintain employee health insurance if you have it in the first place; premiums are covered by FMLA while you’re on leave, though you will have to pay them back when you return.

Unfortunately, there are limitations to this protection, which we’ll get to later.

Do You Have to Take All 12 Weeks at Once?

FMLA grants you up to 12 weeks of leave within a 12-month period. But what happens if your health issues are intermittent or shorter in duration?

You are not required to take all 12 weeks of leave right away. It can be continuous, uninterrupted leave, or it can be an intermittent leave, which allows you to take a week here or there without having to reapply for your FMLA. There is also a type of reduced schedule leave, where you reduce your daily or weekly hours to better accommodate your needs during your leave time.

FMLA and Crisis

If you are in a crisis, don’t wait. Call 988 or another crisis helpline and seek assistance immediately. You can sort out FMLA later if need be.

Don’t use the need to apply for FMLA as a barrier to seeking the help you need now. You can sort out the details later, but your health comes first.

Can You Take FMLA Leave for Mental Health Reasons?

If you read the language surrounding the FMLA, you see a lot of “serious health condition” discussion, but not much about mental health. Can you even take a leave of absence for mental health reasons under the FMLA?

The answer is yes, but the bar is high.

You can take FMLA for your own mental health, or to care for a child, spouse, parent, or other dependent with their own serious health or mental health condition.

However, the condition has to be serious as defined by the Department of Labor.

• Any condition that requires inpatient care for an overnight stay or longer. This can include serious episodes of anxiety or psychosis, treatment for an eating disorder, or a stay at a substance abuse treatment facility.
• Any serious condition that requires continuing treatment from a mental healthcare provider. This can be an acute condition that requires 3+ consecutive days of ongoing treatment, multiple appointments, or ongoing prescriptions. Or it can include chronic conditions like anxiety and depression, which cause bouts of severe lows that require professional treatment at least twice a year.

The government (and your employer) won’t just take your word for it, either; the form required to apply for FMLA needs to be filled out and certified by your healthcare provider.

The Department of Labor provides a handful of examples in its publications to show what does and doesn’t qualify.

Unfortunately, this does rule out anyone with untreated mental illness or minor challenges that make it difficult but not impossible to work.

How to File for an FMLA Leave in Michigan

If you believe you are eligible for FMLA, how can you claim it?

First of all, give advanced notice if you can. FMLA requires 30 days’ advance notice for planned leave, such as if you have an upcoming medical procedure. However, that’s not always possible, so for unplanned absence, you can give notice as early as possible.

Secondly, the specific process can vary by employer. You will need to talk to your employer, such as to your boss or to your HR department, depending on how your employer is structured. FMLA-covered employers need to have policies publicly available, so look for a poster like this one or another resource available to you.

Note: You are not required to share a medical diagnosis or sensitive medical information. However, you do have to provide enough information for your employer to determine if you’re eligible or not.

Your employer should have a process in place for handling leave from FMLA. This is usually a simple form you fill out and give to your doctor or therapist to fill out the rest. There’s no specific form to download and fill out, but if there is a form, it will probably look like one of these:

• An example form from the Department of Labor
• An example form from the State of Michigan for state employees

Again, do not just print out and hand over one of these forms. Your employer will have their own process and paperwork, if necessary, so talk to them. There may be guidance in an employee handbook or on an employee section of your company’s website.

If certification is not required via a standard form, you may have to submit a doctor’s note or other less formal validation of your needs. Again, this all depends on the specific process your employer has established.

Once you’ve submitted your request, generally your next step is to wait. Your employer is required to get back to you within five days, detailing their evaluation of your eligibility and any other information necessary. If your needs are an emergency, such as a sudden hospitalization and unplanned leave, you may be able to get it retroactively designated FMLA, though there may be additional hoops to jump through.

From there, you just need to discuss leave details with your employer. This is where you determine if you’re aiming for reduced hours, intermittent leave (such as for treatment appointments), or a longer continuous leave for recovery. There’s no wrong choice here; determine the one that best suits your needs.

Can You Still Be Fired While on Leave or After FMLA?

FMLA protects you from retaliation, but it doesn’t protect you from everything.

If, while you’re on leave, your company undergoes a round of RIF (Reduction in Force) layoffs, you can still be affected. If you were also struggling at work and they were considering firing you already, they can still do so, as long as they can prove they were going to regardless of your leave.

If you believe you were fired due to your leave of absence, you can consult with an attorney and discuss the possibility of a wrongful termination suit. Many companies are hesitant to fire someone after FMLA, even if it’s justified for them to do so, just so they don’t have to worry about a possible legal challenge. However, there’s no true guarantee that you would win such a suit, hence talking to an attorney. We aren’t lawyers here at BMC Troy, so don’t just take our word for it.

Employers are also required to maintain confidentiality over health information they learn due to FMLA applications. While you’re free to discuss your own health with anyone, your employer is not allowed to share that information outside of very specific contexts. This, too, may be worth talking to an attorney if you believe your employer has violated confidentiality.

Is FMLA the Right Option for You?

The biggest challenge with the FMLA is determining if it’s the right choice to take. In Michigan, there may be better options.

One hurdle with the FMLA is that, while it’s federally protected leave, it’s unpaid leave. That can be a challenge for many Michigan residents. If you have a job where you accrue paid time off, you may be able to take PTO instead. You may also be able to claim FMLA while also redeeming PTO credits to maintain some income during that time. This would be a deal you would have to work out with your employer.

In Michigan, we also have the PMLA, or Paid Medical Leave Act. The PMLA has similar but slightly stricter requirements for eligibility, but it is paid leave. This was recently expanded in February 2025, as well.

Depending on your employer and your relationship with them, you might also be able to work out a deal that doesn’t require any of the associated paperwork. Though rare, some employers are understanding of both physical and mental health problems, and aren’t going to put your job at risk during recovery for either. Definitely get such an informal deal in writing, however.

It’s also possible that a leave of absence isn’t appropriate for you at all. It’s worth talking to your treatment provider to discuss the pros and cons of an extended leave. For some people, the structure of work and a routine schedule is beneficial to treatment. For others, the drawbacks of unpaid leave might do more harm than good. In other cases, especially when daily or weekly appointments put strain on a job or when inpatient hospitalization is required, FMLA leave might be the best choice.

At BMC-Troy, we may be able to help you navigate the FMLA process by guiding you on what steps to take with your employer and providing various services to assist you with your recovery. See if the services we offer can help you by browsing what we can do for you.