EAPA 2009 Highlights – EAP in Difficult Times (The Rest of the Story)

In my last post from the EAPA 2009 conference, I highlighted data shared by Dr. Dan Conti, managing director of employee assistance & work life programs at JP Morgan Chase.  It really pointed to the impact of behavioral health in the workplace.

I do realize that this is not an easy topic to talk about.  It is still creates a sense of shame and embarrassment which prevents those suffering from coming forward for help and those who see it from dealing with it.  Yes, these issues still remain “in the closet” and cost businesses a lot of money and pain.

This is why employee assistance programs (EAPs) are so critical.  They not only provide those who suffer with some resources for helping them to lead a normal life, but they also provide education to managers and employees on how to prevent or intervene earlier.  So here are some interesting tidbits that Dr. Conti shared from the work of the JP Morgan Chase EAP:

• Mental health issues varied across different business units with the largest percentage of psychiatric disability cases showing up in “high demand, low control” jobs.  These people also had longer durations of disability.
• People who are poor performers at work tended to be worse patients than high performers.
• Overall health risks are higher in these workers because they tend to have unmanageable lives and don’t take care of themselves.  They therefore have high cholesterol, smoke, don’t exercise and are overweight.

So what can be done to intervene?

Here is where Dr. Conti points to the tremendous advantage of EAPs — because EAPs are the best trained and positioned to help.  EAPs look at people holistically and assess their issues across a number of dimensions.  Only then can we know which intervention or interventions are appropriate for that person.

Where this is excellent for working with situations after they have occurred, EAPs also need to be at the forefront in educating employees.  To do this, we need to figure out a way to become more involved in their lives.  And the best way we can do that is by an integrated EAP/work-life program  because the work-life components allow for 1) less threatening entree and 2) provide information at the beginning of problem formation.

In essence, the job of good EAPs is to help people to avoid disability and, to the best of our abilities, keep them from getting sick.  And when they do get sick, EAPs need to work with all parties involved to get that person well again and back to full functioning personally and at work.

Doing this will allow us to have a significant impact on severity and  duration of disability and recidivism.  This approach will then lead to better treatment outcomes, decreased health care costs over the long run, higher productivity and higher performing organizations.

Tags: disability, disability management, disease management, holistic health