Mental Health: Meeting Employer ADA Obligations While Ensuring Workplace Safety

By Lori F. Welty, JD

Absence Management Sr. Compliance Attorney
FINEOS

When a mental health condition impacts an employee’s work performance, an employer must balance the duty to accommodate under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), maintaining a safe work environment, and employee productivity.

Not all mental health conditions meet the ADA’s definition of a disability; a condition must substantially limit one or more major life activity. When this standard is met, an employer must provide a reasonable accommodation to qualified individuals with disabilities who can perform the essential functions of the job, with or without reasonable accommodations.

The ability to handle stress may be an essential function of many jobs. As one court stated, “While an employee can be qualified despite adverse reactions to stress, he is not qualified when that stress leads him to [threaten his co-workers]. This is true regardless of whether [his] threats stemmed from his major depressive disorder.”¹

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