Remind Supervisors to Keep Mum

Many supervisors are not aware of the legal implications for disclosing personal and confidential information to others who do not have a right to know it. Personnel files are confidential. Medical files are confidential. And, of course EAP files are confidential. But which of these three are the most confidential and have the biggest fines if violated?

You are right if you guessed EAP files. EAP files are governed by federal confidentiality laws when they manage alcohol and drug abuse information and especially if they receive federal funding indirectly or directly. You would be surprised how many EAPs fall under this ruling. EAPs have to use a release for each person. Personnel and medical releases can employee blanket releases for more than one person. It's prohibited with EAP records management.

Most EAPs don't promote these nuances about confidentiality, and they should because doing so will help win more clients. All EAPs should declare that they follow these stricter guidelines for managing information. A supervisor who discloses to other employees, or announces without authorization that an employee has gone to the EAP is guilty not of violating a confidentiality law, but reckless and improper discloser and violating the employee’s privacy.

The Privacy Act protects privacy rights. Personal information and medical records and EAP records are covered by . Supervisors who blab about employees referred to the EAP are damaging the perception of the EAP as a confidential service. And, they are holding themselves out at risk for a lawsuit for reckless and improper disclosure. Talk about these supervisor risks during supervisors training. You can learn about the most comprehensive supervisor training ever produced for EAPs by going here.

Where Have All the EAP Posters Gone...Long Time Passing

If you put up EAP posters in office buildings and/or plant or industrial locations where employees gather, that's great. But are you keeping the garden weeded?

Chances are if you don't go visit those posters, they're getting taken down, covered up by other announcements, and at the very least are becoming invisible to potential clients who've seen them 400 times walking past them.

You have to refresh your posters. When I was Division Chief for Occupational Alcoholism Programs overseeing the U.S. Department of Agriculture EAP, I think my staff counted 47 bulletin boards at the headquarters of USDA on Independence Avenue in DC. Bulletin boards were a valuable tool for us in promoting the EAP, but we knew we didn't have a big budget to replace those posters. They were getting old, forgotten, and dog-eared. Our solution was to rotate the posters from one bulletin board to the next. Instantly we had refreshed posters.

So, if you want to keep visibility up, simply assign a number to each of the bulletin boards that you have access to, and then walk from one bulletin board to the next moving the posters at you go 1 to 2, 2 goes to 3, 3 goes to 4, etc. Do this about every four weeks. This will also get you out of the house. Here's a very cool poster I created for you. Use it in good health. It's part of the editable set of posters at EAPtools.com. (Hey...I know it will be tempting to hang it on the wall in your office, but it's for employees!)

EAPs AREN'T Wellness Programs: Don't Let'm Say So

A new study released by HR benefits research group Hewitt Associates reports that employers are failing to engage employees in Wellness Programs to any significant degree and that employees really don't want their employers involved in their personal lives telling them how to manage their health. You can read about the research study here at the Hewitt Associates Press Release. Ouch for Wellness. What are the implications for managing EAPs and behavioral risk, which of course have nothing to do with this report. Just that: Don't let management pull the EAP into the vortex of program cuts and lump you in with the "Wellness Program" folks down the hall. EAPs are management tools, pro-employee and pro-company management tools. They aren't part of a Wellness Program, but the folks not like to remember this are the top management decision makers who look for places to cut fat. It ain't you if your running a functional employee assistance program.

Wellness programs sound great, but when reduced to a survey of popularity, only 17% of employees say they want their employer to get involved in their personal lives.

Test Your EAP IQ: Who Should Be for EAP Services

Which of following policy statements supports the view that an EAP is a benefit to employees like any other, and which one supports the view that an EAP is a comprehensive, loss prevention and behavioral risk management tool to control costs, preserve human resources, reduce employment practices liability, and help employees be healthy, happy, and productive.


Policy Statement A: The EAP is available to all full and part-time employees as part of their benefits package offered by the company.


Policy Statement B: The EAP is available to all employees, part-time employees, their immediate family members, all employees paid as contractors, temporary employees (IRS Form 1099), and volunteers.

The limited view is Statement A. The comprehensive view is Statement B.

Statement B costs a company more, but it will protect the organization more.

Statement B will affect the bottom line more in terms of "dollars recovered from loss". The afforded protection will be unknowable because the loss events that may have occurred, won't. There is a way to identify cost-benefit however. That is to look at property casualty losses and claims from on comparable industry to the next, and over a series of years in the company that has decided to make its EAP a loss prevention program.

EAPs: Don't Get Accused of FMLA Abuse Helping the Down Trodden

In your effort to support employees and help them find relief for mental health conditions that affect them, do not fall victim to encouraging employees to seek a doctor's verification of their need to take medical leave for simply feeling "stressed out." It may not hold up under scrutiny and if you are found to have collaborated with the employee to take off work for what management may later determine as a "mental health vacation", you could regret it. Employer's will know intuitively if you are involved in this sort of thing.


The FMLA provides job protection for employees who are sick and can't work for up to twelve weeks per year, if they must care for a family member who is ill. However, have you had an employee client without any sick leave or remaining vacation leave visit your EAP office to discuss taking off work for "mental stress" while having it covered by the FMLA so the absence from work does not jeopardize the employee's employment? Feeling empathy for an employee's plight could make some fall victim of this collusion if you don't stay on your toes.


Be aware that encouraging an employee to seek a medical certification for stress and having it appear as an illness, perhaps by a licensed health practicioner certifying it when everyone knows this is not a bona fide condition, will not endear you to the employer hosting the EAP.


A quick digression and philosphical discussion: As an employee assistance professional, your customer is the employer. (Some folks hate it when I say this. They want it to be the employee.) Your service is employee assistance. The client is the employee, manager, or organization being serviced at any particular moment, but the employee is not your customer. The definition of a customer pertains tp that who purchases a commodity. EAPs exist because of their econonmic cost-benefit justification to employers and employer patronage as customers. If it was not for this purchase, EAPs would not exist. Many employee assistance professionals lose cite of this because they knowingly (or unknowingly) want to see themselves as advocates for the little guy and in their view of the world--not necessarily publicly stated--the employer is considered the power and abuser. More precisely, some EA professionals have bought into the "corporation bad" mentality.


Back to the topic: When you service an organization with an EAP, it's great to act in the "broker" role and help connect clisents to services, but be cautious to avoid the role of "employee advocate." Seek to connect employees with resources, even resources that provide employee advocacy, but don't enter this realm as an employee assistance professional to argue the employee's cause with the organization. If you were trained as human services professional, you've had this lecture in a sociology class along the way, I know, but many employee assistance professionals without formal human services professional training haven't heard this distinction before. (So I'm blogging, man!)

So, my argument is to think in terms of what is best for your client in the context of what is best for the employer, not the other way around. To do otherwise can jeopardize your job security, reputation, and the employee assistance profession in general.

A recent court ruling three weeks ago, in favor of the employer, found that the employee didn't have sufficient justification to take FMLA leave because they felt "stressed out." This case has implications for EAPs. You can read about here: Lackman v. Recovery Services of New Jersey, Inc

Let Drug Treatment Programs Boost Your EAP Utilization

Alcoholism, drug addiction, and psychiatric treatment programs always know who the employers are of their patients. It's one of questions on any intake or admission form. But I bet these treatment programs aren't calling you to let you know that an employee of yours was admitted to the treatment program, right? Why not? Do not say it is because the patient didn't want to sign a release! The reason is because the treatment program didn't ask the patient if they wanted support and help from their EAP--you. The treatment program isn't "thinking" about how you can help the patient (employee), how it can have less program stress by you assisting with follow-up, and how it can reduce recidivism while creating a win-win through collaboration. You will have to teach them. And if you do, you will raise your utilization rate with your most valuable clients -- alcohol and drug addicted employees in recovery.

Imagine that anytime an employee from one of the major companies you service with an EAP was admitted to an addiction treatment program, that the treatment program would look to see if the patient had an EAP, who the contact person for that EAP was. They would then encourage the employee to use the program and then incorporate the EAP in the discharge summary.

You would then be called and included in the important follow up information pertaining to the employee's recovery. Employee referrals to you of this nature will increase your utilization rate by becoming clients so you can do follow up. When you contact addiction treatment programs, provide them with a list of the organizations you serve. Let the treatment program know that you are willing to follow patients (employees) discharged from treatment, and assist them in remaining motivated to follow-through with their recovery programs while problem-solving workplace issues.

Addiction treatment programs are more than willing to ask patients for permission so you can be contacted. You can then involve the employee with the EAP and schedule post-discharge follow-up at the EAP office. This approach improves success rates of patients because the treatment experience becomes less isolated; the EAP is involved and a linkage to the job setting is established. In some cases, employees have been enabled for years, and return to the workplace is a complete set-up for relapse without your help. The EAP can play a mitigating role with a back-to-work conference, and other support. You can purchase for a specially designed set of "back-to-work" conference guidelines for EAPs at the www.eaptools.com web site. Find it on this page below along with other fact sheets for EAP managment.

RETURN TO WORK GUIDELINES FACT SHEET

It’s OK to Telephone the EAP

If you are an EAP with a face-to-face operation, inform employees through your communication channels, EAP orientations, and supervisor training’s, that you can help employees by telephone if they do not want to see the EA professional in person. Don't overlook this promotional strategy. Many EAPs miss a unknown percentage of potential clients because they do not specifically promote this option.

The bottom line – you don’t want to lose employees who need help, and who could improve your utilization rate just because they didn’t want to be persaonally seen. Many employees have never seen a mental health professional, let alone an EA professional. They may have no intention of doing so, and yet they still have personal problems.

You will need to give these folks plenty of permission to call you. Top managers are also skittish about visiting EA professionals. You’re likely to attract more top managers with this approach. Don’t lock yourself out of these referrals by being rigid about this additional method of helping employees. (This is NOT an endorsement for a telephone EAP model.)

Don’t think you will see fewwer employees in-person if you mention occasionally that you can still help them by phone. Just the opposite is true. Once “gun-shy” employees call, the ice is broken. You are made more familiar, and the employee is a step closer to accepting an in-person appointment.

Many of you have experienced a call from an employee, who you asked to come to the EAP office in person to better discuss a personal problem. They then agreed, but that’s because the employee got past the first mental roadblock--feeling comfortable with the person at the other end of the phone. Do not let administrative or secretarial staff manage these calls and attempt to motivate an in-person visit to the EAP by the caller. Have them referred to the EA professional to take the "sale" the rest of the way. It takes counseling skill to avoid losing some of these calls.