EAP Service Use in a Managed Behavioral Health Care Organization: From the Employee Perspective

Merrick, Elizabeth L.; Hodgkin, Dominic; Hiatt, Deirdre; Horgan, Constance M.; McCann, Bernard

doi:10.1080/15555240.2011.573751

Cited by 9 publications

(6 citation statements)

References 12 publications

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“…Notably, a lack of knowledge about EAPs and knowing when to use EAP services are enduring barriers to its use (see [ 30 , 33 , 51 , 54 ]). On face value, it may be easy to consider these enduring barriers as solely arising from poorly targeted EAP marketing, however contributing causes may also be found at the EAP provider and client organisation level.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Exploring men’s use of mental health support offered by an Australian Employee Assistance Program (EAP): perspectives from a focus-group study with males working in blue- and white-collar industries

Matthews

Gerald²,

Jessup

2021

Int J Ment Health Syst

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Background Men continue to be overrepresented in the Australian suicide statistics despite wide scale public health initiatives to improve men’s mental health literacy and to increase their help-seeking behaviour. Employee Assistance Programs (EAP) deliver free and confidential mental health support; however, their services are underutilised by men. In the absence of contemporary literature that explores end-user experiences of EAPs, we asked men from blue- and white-collar employment settings about the barriers and enablers to using EAP services and explored differences between employment settings. Methods Forty-four men participated in this qualitative study: 32 from one white-collar employer and 12 from one blue-collar employer. Two qualified mental health professionals facilitated five first-round and three second-round focus groups and one interview with white-collar workers, and two focus groups and three interviews with blue-collar workers. Data were thematically analysed using a framework approach. Results Four of the six main themes were barriers: no need for EAP—alternative supports; uncertainty of EAP services; scepticism and distrust of EAP; and societal and workplace cultures. Elements of enduring barriers to EAP use were contained within sub-themes. These included lack of knowledge about EAPs, issues of trustworthiness and confidentiality, and fear of stigma and career jeopardy. Enablers comprised the need for attractive, reliable messaging and proactive connections and service delivery. Differences within sub-themes for white-collar and blue-collar groups reflected the corporate nature of work and workplace culture for white-collar participants, and workers’ communication and practical problem resolution preferences for blue-collar workers. Conclusion Some elements identified in the barriers to EAP use are more entrenched than were previously estimated and these need to be a priority for action to increase confidence in EAP services by end-users. EAPs that have a visible and proactive presence in the workplace, that tailor their marketing and service delivery to different workgroups, that provide a competitive advantage to its service users, and more confidently conveys independence from its client organisations may help to increase men’s interest in accessing EAP support services. Further initiatives that reduce the stigma surrounding mental health and help-seeking both in society and the workplace are needed.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Exploring men’s use of mental health support offered by an Australian Employee Assistance Program (EAP): perspectives from a focus-group study with males working in blue- and white-collar industries

Matthews

Gerald²,

Jessup

2021

Int J Ment Health Syst

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“…Confidentiality was another factor identified that influenced decision making, participants had a general belief that EAP officers report details from the sessions to their employers. Confidentiality concerns with EAP services have been previously documented (39), however, this study shows how a lack of anticipated confidentiality can lead to decisional conflict around disclosure. Confidentiality may be limited within colleagues as some legislation and professional obligations require colleagues to report to management if someone has disclosed to them, this may be an issue specific to the Australian first responders group as they have particular safety concerns related to their professional responsibilities.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 67%

Deciding to Disclose a Mental Health Condition in Male Dominated Workplaces; A Focus-Group Study

et al. 2018

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Objectives: Deciding to disclose a mental illness in the workplace requires thoughtful informed decision making. Decision aids are increasingly used to help people make complex decisions, but need to incorporate relevant factors for the context. This study aimed to identify factors and processes that influence decision making about such disclosure to inform the development of a disclosure decision aid tool for employees in male dominated industries.Methods: We invited 15 partner organisations in male dominated industries to facilitate the recruitment of employees who either had disclosed a mental health condition in their workplace; or occupied a position to whom employees disclosed to focus groups addressing the aims.Results: The majority of the organisations had explicit policies that employees must disclose and so were unable to be seen countenancing non-disclosure as an option. Two focus groups were conducted (n = 13) with mainly male (62%), full-time employees (85%), and both disclosed (46%) and authority (54%) groups. Six themes, all barriers, were identified as influencing decision making processes: knowledge about symptoms, and self-discrimination (internal), stigma and discrimination by others, limited managerial support, dissatisfaction with services, and/or a risk of job or financial loss (external).Conclusion: Decisions to disclose mental health conditions, even by those who had done so, appear driven entirely by consideration of negative aspects. This suggests that anti-discrimination policy, legislation, awareness campaigns, and manager training have yet to change negative perceptions, and that any decision aid tool needs to incorporate counterfactual positive aspects that appear not to be an important consideration in such male dominated workplaces. There is a disconnect between organisational policies favouring disclosure and employees favouring non-disclosure that has caused tension within the organisational culture. Decision aid tools may assist employees with an active disclosure without waiting for an event to occur, giving the control of the decision back to the employee.

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“…EAPs were first established to assist employees with alcohol and drug abuse, which are themselves strongly associated with suicidal thoughts and behaviors (Rossow, 2000;Borges and Loera, 2010). More recently, EAPs have been transformed from a traditional instrument used to identify alcohol and drug abuse to a more comprehensive program that addresses other non-substance abuse issues, such as employees' mental health and personal and family problems (Luthans and Waldersee, 1989;Merrick et al, 2011). EAP implementation is essential to support employees experiencing personal as well as professional crises, increase productivity and maintain cost-effective risk management (Csiernik, 2011;Merrick et al, 2011;Waehrer et al, 2016;Joseph and Walker, 2017).…”

Section: Aggravating Employment Factors and Conservation Of Resources...mentioning

confidence: 99%

Can HRM predict mental health crises? Using HR analytics to unpack the link between employment and suicidal thoughts and behaviors

Hastuti

Timming

2022

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PurposeThe aim of this research is to determine the extent to which the human resource (HR) function can screen and potentially predict suicidal employees and offer preventative mental health assistance.Design/methodology/approachDrawing from the 2019 National Survey of Drug Use and Health (N = 56,136), this paper employs multivariate binary logistic regression to model the work-related predictors of suicidal ideation, planning and attempts.FindingsThe results indicate that known periods of joblessness, the total number of sick days and absenteeism over the last 12 months are significantly associated with various suicidal outcomes while controlling for key psychosocial correlates. The results also indicate that employee assistance programs are associated with a significantly reduced likelihood of suicidal ideation. These findings are consistent with conservation of resources theory.Research limitations/implicationsThis research demonstrates preliminarily that the HR function can unobtrusively detect employee mental health crises by collecting data on key predictors.Originality/valueIn the era of COVID-19, employers have a duty of care to safeguard employee mental health. To this end, the authors offer an innovative way through which the HR function can employ predictive analytics to address mental health crises before they result in tragedy.

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EAP Service Use in a Managed Behavioral Health Care Organization: From the Employee Perspective

Cited by 9 publications

References 12 publications

Exploring men’s use of mental health support offered by an Australian Employee Assistance Program (EAP): perspectives from a focus-group study with males working in blue- and white-collar industries

Exploring men’s use of mental health support offered by an Australian Employee Assistance Program (EAP): perspectives from a focus-group study with males working in blue- and white-collar industries

Deciding to Disclose a Mental Health Condition in Male Dominated Workplaces; A Focus-Group Study

Can HRM predict mental health crises? Using HR analytics to unpack the link between employment and suicidal thoughts and behaviors

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