Throughout the counseling process, the employee
client and the therapist work in partnership to find resources and answers, and help the
employee come to an acceptable resolution to the concerns and issues raised.
Assessment
The first one to three sessions of the
counseling program focus on assessment, in which the employee describes his or her
concerns. The counselor takes a complete history and offers feedback and recommendations.
During this initial phase, a risk assessment and a chemical dependency evaluation, if
indicated, are completed. At this time, if the client and counselor agree that the concern
may be effectively addressed by EAP counseling alone, they will schedule a series of
one-to-one appointments to address the concern.
Solution-focused, brief therapy
Following assessment, therapy focuses on
what the employee feels are his or her key needs, and supports his or her progress toward
a realistic resolution of the problems. The EAP provides each employee or family member
with one to eight sessions, each of which is 50 minutes long. When family group sessions
are appropriate, each member of the group is counted as a client for utilization reporting
purposes, and a family group is entitled to up to eight counseling sessions.
Referrals
Sometimes, a problem will require more attention over a longer period
of time than can typically be addressed in the brief therapy sessions. Our EAP
professionals have the training, knowledge and connections to provide the employee with a
referral to an appropriate psychologist, psychiatrist, chemical dependency program or
other type of counseling program in the community or region. Referrals are made based on
the employee's issues and his or her mental health benefit coverage, as well as
considerations such as location and accessibility of the community-based counselor.
Crisis Intervention
If an employee's situation is so intense
that there is the possibility the person may harm himself or herself or someone else, the
counselor can arrange for a crisis intervention. This is an emergency mental health
response designed to deal with the immediate crisis and stabilize the individual.
Critical Incident Stress Management (CISM)
What if a catastrophic event were to
happen at your place of business - an assault, a serious accident, the sudden death of an
employee? No one wants to think about such traumatic events, but they can and do happen,
and they can be very hard on everyone in the workplace. Our EAP offers critical-incident
stress management, a method of intervening in such situations that has proven successful
in helping people around the country deal with traumatic events. CISM provides defusing,
debriefing and structured support to employees who have been exposed to a traumatic
situation, and can greatly help them in coping and coming to terms with the severely
stressful event.
Life-Enhancement Programs
Because of its association with United
Health Services Hospitals, the Business Direct EAP offers a wide range of
Life-Enhancement
Programs through Stay Healthy, the hospitals' wellness program based at the Oakdale Mall.
Stay Healthy is your employee's complete source for information, education, screenings,
support and referrals that relate in any way to the person's health concerns, health
awareness and overall well-being. Likewise, information about
Stay Healthy programs, a
national online health library and full information about all programs offered under the
United Health Services umbrella is available on the United Health Services Web site,
http://www.uhs.net
.
