Working with EAPs

Good physical and mental health go hand-in-hand. And treating them in tandem can go a long way toward ensuring productive employees. “When physical and mental health care are not integrated, diagnoses are often missed and conditions go untreated,” said Lynn Merritt, senior vice president for the Blue Cross Blue Shield Association (bcbs.com). The result can be illnesses that impact employee performance and the business’s bottom line.

Too often, though, the mental health side of the partnership ends up getting neglected. The problem is largely one of tradition, as many insurance policies address only physical illness. Businesses can solve the issue in two ways. The first is by selecting carriers that treat mental health conditions. The second is by signing up with an Employee Assistance Program (EAP) which provides round-the-clock counseling through in-person consultations as well as remote access channels such as text, chat, video conference, or telephone.

“Sometimes all people need to do is talk with somebody at the beginning of the issues they’re struggling with, so their conditions don’t get worse,” said Bernie Dyme, President of Perspectives Ltd, an EAP consulting firm (perspectivesltd.com). “EAPs can give employees the help they need, and that can mean they will stick around, which helps retention.”

While EAPS are often baked into disability carrier insurance, not all such organizations are alike. Psychologists advise shopping around for one that is committed to quality consultations. “The very structure of most EAPs is based upon a pricing model where the contractor makes more when fewer people use it,” said Patrick J. Kennedy, co-founder and director of One Mind At Work, a global coalition of organizations committed to the development of a standard for workplace mental health (onemindatwork.org). “Employers need to obtain EAPs that are not disincentivized to get more people to know about them and make use of them.”