To begin, Wisdom Within Counseling is a team of holistic therapists in Niantic. And, if you are experiencing a serious mental health condition, your therapist in Niantic can help you get FMLA. Furthermore, FMLA allows you to receive unpaid time off to collect yourself, organize your thoughts, get mental health treatment and therapy, and find balance. However, a licensed therapist will need to be seeing you in order to sign off on your FMLA paperwork. At Wisdom Within Counseling, during FMLA, you can receive holistic therapy and learn positive coping skills to manage your chronic moods and intense feelings in healthy ways. Lastly, Wisdom Within Counseling in Niantic is a team of mental health professionals that can help you receive FMLA (family medical leave act) benefits.
What Is FMLA?
First, the Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993 (FMLA) is a United States labor law. Furthermore, this law requires covered employers to provide employees with job-protected and unpaid leave for qualified medical and family reasons. And, this means that if you have a physical issue like seizures or a mental health issue such as panic attacks, you can take leave. Read more about anxiety support for young adults, here. Lastly, even though this time is unpaid, your position will be protected when you return.
Why May Someone Need To Use FMLA?
In addition, when it comes to mental health, during your FMLA, you may take part in intensive outpatient therapy groups. Or, others do twice a week individual therapy in Niantic at Wisdom Within Counseling. Moreover, some young adults with chronic depression take FMLA because they need time to learn coping skills to better manage their mood. Read more about teen depression management in Niantic, here. And, getting our of bed to go to work, focusing at work, and being present can be really hard with chronic depression. At times, isolating can make depression worse. Even working one or two days a week can help. And, here is an article about how getting a job can help depression, which you can read here.
Loss Of A Loved One
Similarly, a loss of a loved one can be a good reason to take FMLA. Read more about support for grieving children in child therapy in Niantic, here. For instance, if your spouse passes away, you need to take time to organize your life, seek therapy, and set up child psychotherapy. And, you need time to grieve, feel the loss, get mental health support, and stabilize your family life. Even if you went to work, you might not be able to be present, or might be too sad to work. In conclusion, FMLA for mental health can be a way to collect your thoughts, understand recent changes, and learn positive coping skills in psychotherapy in Niantic to manage loss, depression, or panic attacks.
What Does FMLA Provide?
To begin, you must have worked for one year with your company for FMLA eligibility. Additionally, you need to have worked at least 1,250 hours during the 12 months prior to the start of FMLA leave. Further, your employer must be a larger business with 50 or more employees. So, if you work for the local pizza shop in Niantic, that has 10 employees, you probably won’t have FLMA as an option. And, your pizza job may still be there when you go back to work since there is such high turn over at a pizza shop. Note, FLMA is available at large companies. Lastly, FMLA refers to the Family and Medical Leave Act, which is a federal law. In conclusion, this law guarantees employees up to 12 workweeks of unpaid leave each year with no threat of job loss.
Health Benefits Continue On FMLA Too
To add, FMLA also requires that your employer keep offering you and your family health insurance. However, since you aren’t receiving paychecks, you will still need to make payments weekly or monthly. So, employers continue to offer health benefits for eligible workers just as if they were on the job daily. However, your employer may require you to use paid sick time, and accrued paid vacation time during your FMLA leave period. And, some people use FMLA for a week where others use it for two months. But, in either case, your job will be there once you return.
What Do I Do On FMLA When I’m Not Getting Paid?
Further, The team of holistic therapists at Wisdom Within Counseling in Niantic support your whole family on FMLA. Additionally, when you use paid sick time or vacation time, your employer is required to pay you your typical rate. But, when you take FMLA, your time off is completely unpaid. So, it can help to have an emergency fund set aside. To add, your emergency fund is most successful when it includes three to six months of expenses saved up.
Therefore, you’ll have funds set aside for paying your mortgage or rent. However, it can be helpful to think about saving for mental health too. For instance, factor investing in child psychotherapy, marriage counseling in Niantic, individual psychotherapy, or even appointments with a psychologist. Or, you may set aside money to take a meditation and yoga retreat, tropical family cruise, or rejuvenate with organic foods. Finally, your time off on FMLA is to better your mental, emotional, and spiritual self.
Types of serious health conditions
Therefore, under the FMLA, a serious medical condition must fall into one of the following categories:
- Inpatient care or hospitalization (for example, suicidal thoughts)
- Incapacity for more than three days with continuing treatment by a health care provider (for example, witnessing a traumatic event)
- Incapacity relating to pregnancy or prenatal care
- Chronic serious health conditions (for instance, seizures)
- Permanent or long term conditions (for instance, chronic depression)
- Conditions requiring multiple treatments (for instance, twice a week mental health therapy or chemotherapy)
Who Decides About FMLA?
To note, it’s not up to your employer to diagnose you. Also, your employer can’t provide medical opinions or assess your condition. Instead, when it comes to about your mental and physical health, a professional needs to diagnose you. So, when it comes to panic attacks, depression, witnessing a traumatic event, or another mental health issue, Wisdom Within Counseling in Niantic is here for you.
How Wisdom Within Counseling in Niantic Can Help
Similarly, our team of mental health professionals at Wisdom Within Counseling here in Niantic can help assess your mental health to see if you qualify for FMLA. Further, you and your therapist will complete your required FMLA paperwork together. You two can have conversations around treatment goals, diagnosis, and a plan to get you back on your feet and working again. And, by using a certification form provided by your employer, your professional therapist in Niantic will make a judgment, diagnosis, and sign off for FMLA leave. Lastly, from working with a mental health therapist, your company can meet its legal obligations to you as an employee and others who are protected under the FMLA. Likewise, you can receive FMLA, as well as positive coping skills and techniques from weekly therapy to manage your depression or condition in healthier ways.
