By clicking
Talk to a Specialist, you agree to our
Privacy Policy. You also consent to receive calls and texts, which may be autodialed, from us and our customer communities. Your consent is not a condition to using our service. Please visit our
Terms of Use. for information about our privacy practices.
Partner actively with your parent’s doctor — and make sure he/she cites concrete medical/care needs. Within HIPPA guidelines, of course.
And keep all mention of depression out of it. Yes, it’s 2017 and we all know that depression is a medical condition. But the sad truth is that no one in the workplace gives a crap about your depression, let alone your parent’s.
In the workplace, any perception of “not all that serious” regarding someone’s FMLA can harm that person’s reputation. Granted, your supervisor and peers cannot officially discriminate against you. But informal sleights and bad vibes are easily spread around.....and very hard to prove.
Take the FMLA, if that’s what’s right for your personal situation. Just be very careful about language and demeanor. And be the best, most conscientious, most reliable worker you can be when you are at work.
Good luck. The juggle and struggle is so hard.
Also FMLA is usually unpaid leave. You have to have paid time off hours accrued and will get paid for the hours you have in the bank but that’s it.
I had to take FMLA a few times when my mom had heart surgery, her mastectomy & then when she fell & fractured her hip when she came home. keep in mind (as I did) that you can only use FMLA within one 12 month period & you may want to save some of those 12 weeks in case she has another episode that you would use FMLA for.
Your profile says that your parent is in a NH and the primary ailment is depression.
That really seems unlikely that your parent was admitted to a NH ONLY because of depression and that there is nothing else medically going on other than depression.
I hope that you bring all the resources that exist in the NH and outside of it to treat your parent's depression.
On a completely different note, depression is a treatable illness. Has your parent been seen and evaluated for depression by a competent geriatric psychiatrist? It's something to consider.