Colorado Employee Assistance Professionals Association

Colorado Chapter

Employee Assistance Professionals Association

(EAPA)

Colorado Employee Assistance Professionals Association

Work loads and stress are increasing at work

Stress accounts for 40% of employee turnover. (6)

Colorado Employee Assistance Professionals Association

A changing workplace . . .

• A fundamental change in today’s global economy demands cerebral not manual skills as the minds of employees do the heavy lifting. This shift “coinciding with an increase in brain-based illnesses like anxiety and depression, challenges the US, Canada, and countries around the world.” (5)

Colorado Employee Assistance Professionals Association

The Facts:According to the Surgeon General, one in five adults (20%)

will experience a diagnosable mental illness in any given year. (1)

Among those of working age, it is estimated that the prevalence of mental illness and/or substance abuse in any given year approaches 25%. (2)

Mental illness and substance abuse annually cost employers in indirect costs an estimated $80 to $100 billion. (2)

Lost Opportunities: Thirty-one percent of respondents said "mental illness" has more effect on lost productivity, increasedabsenteeism, and other indirect costs than any other health issue. (3)

Colorado Employee Assistance Professionals Association

An Employee Assistance Program can help!

EAP interventions have been shown to improve employee well-being, as well as produce rapid improvements in work performance. This will translate into significant reductions in lost productivity, absenteeism and healthcare costs.(4)

Companies with EAPs in place have a 21 percent lower absenteeism rate and a 14 percent higher productivity rate. (7)

Colorado Employee Assistance Professionals Association

What is an Employee Assistance Program? (EAP)

In a special committee appointed by the National Business Group on Health, EAP was defined in the following way:

Employee Assistance Programs are the human behavior/psychological experts that provide strategic analysis, guidance, and consultation throughout the organization to [apply] the principles of human behavior to enhance organizational performance, culture and business success.

Colorado Employee Assistance Professionals Association

An EAP is:•A worksite-based program

•Helps work organizations address productivity issues

•Helps employee clients identify and resolve personal or professional concerns that may affect job performance.

Colorado Employee Assistance Professionals Association

Diversity of EAP Models

• Internal • Hybrid—Half Internal/Half External• External• Telephonic• Web Based

Colorado Employee Assistance Professionals Association

EAP ServicesProblem Identification/Assessment and ReferralCrisis InterventionShort-Term Counseling / Problem ResolutionMonitoring and Follow-Up ServicesTraining on Behavioral Health IssuesOrganizational Consultation and SupportProgram Promotion and EducationBehavior Health Wellness SupportConflict Management

Colorado Employee Assistance Professionals Association

Human PerformanceHarvard Business Review: January 2001

Jim Loehr and Tony Schwartz

“ Most companies have operated on the belief that high performance is exclusively linked with cognitive and intellectual capacity. Data and research have proven that for companies to achieve breakthrough growth and success , they must also focus on all of the elements of human performance – the body, the emotions, the spirit –consider the person as a whole.”

Colorado Employee Assistance Professionals Association

Citations for data1. An Employer’s Guide to Behavioral Health Services, National Business Group on

Health, December 2005.2. Mental Health: A Report of the Surgeon General, U.S. Department of Health and

Human Services, December 1999. The report is the product of a collaboration between the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration and the National Institutes of Health, which supports the National Institute of Mental Health.

3. Innerworkings: A Look at Mental Health in Today's Workplace, Employee Benefit News and the Partnership for Workplace Mental Health, January 2007

4. A Mentally Healthy Workforce – It’s Good for Business, Partnership for Mental Health, 2006.

5. Spangler, N., “US and Canada Forum on Mental Health and Productivity Brings Stakeholders Together”, Mental HealthWorks p. 7

6. American Institute of Stress, Benefit News Online, May 9, 2006.7. US Department of Health and Human Resources

Colorado Employee Assistance Professionals Association

Colorado EAPA• For more information, visit us on the web at

www.coloradoeapa.org