Yes, Your Own Blog Can Pay Off! Pay Attention to Marina London

Hi everyone, yes, it is true. Blogging pays. If you are at the EAPA Conference taking place in Tampa right now, and you are participating in the seminar on blogging, pay attention.

Blogging is awesome and it can really, really help the EAP field---and your EAP.

But let me give you a tip. Select a niche!!! Don't blog about anything and everything. Of course, I am blogging about EAP related issues, but I could just as easily blog about EAPs and Workplace Violence.

Let's discuss this for a moment. Can you guess how many times the phrase "workplace violence" is Googled each month? I will tell you.....looking it up now as I type.......the answer is 49,500 times per month.

Impressive? Yes. But let's say you blogged on Workplace Violence every 7 days. No big deal -- just 100 words on how EAPs can play a positive role in reducing the risk of workplace violence. What would happen?

Here what would happen. Because your blog begins to accumlate highly relevant content, you would slowly but almost assuredly find yourself on page one of Google.

Do you realize the implications of this?

It means traffic---and that means anyone interested in the topic would slowly  begin to view you as the expert on this topic and witha  link to your website on your blog, discover you and your EAP. Search engines will rank you high because you are consistently talking about this topic. The rest is your message. But with 49,500 searches and you being on page one of Google, do you think you would get a few interested customers? Duh.

The Official Dietary Bible Every EAP Should Own (FREE)

You probably know more about alcoholism, psychotherapy, and managing job stress than human nutrition, correct? There are many subjects that come up when counseling employees and let's face it, we don't always feel in command of every topic.

There are some topics you need to be competent to handle however. One of them is nutrition.

Well there is no reason that you have to be an EAP professional who is an ignoramus about nutrition any longer. You can now download the official federal government bible on all this stuff! Nutrition, Health, Exercise -- it all in the Dietary Guidelines for Americans

I am talking about having a serious grounding in human nutrition that you can offer to your clients and then be sure you are correct and legally safe in offering those dietary recommendations. You can't get that from a book at Borders. (Well you could, but your risk when offering this advice is reduced when you can reference federal government sources, right?)

I am not saying that you should play doctor, by the way.

For example, in your counseling office, could you intelligently comment on things like offering nutritional recommendations for overweight children, being aware of what pregnant women should be concerned about regarding their diet. What the risks there are in weight reduction for new mothers that jeopardize the weight gain of a nursing infant. Knowing that it requires 60-90 minutes of moderate exercise PER DAY to sustain weigh loss?

There are ton of issues regarding diet that arise in the EAP office, and you are a more valuable contributor to workplace wellness and employee productivity if you have a working knowledge or command of this information.

It's easy to get. Download this "bible" of nutrition information from feds. It's usually about $13 at the Government Printing Office, but yours truly found the federal government download (free) at the following link: http://www.health.gov/dietaryguidelines/dga2005/document/pdf/DGA2005.pdf

Check out this outline:

• Background and Purpose of the Dietary Guidelines for Americans
• Adequate Nutrients Within Calorie Needs
• Weight Management
• Physical Activity .
• Food Groups To Encourage
• Fats
• Carbohydrates
• Sodium and Potassium
• Alcoholic Beverages .
• Food Safety
• Eating Patterns
• Eating Plan at 1,600-, 2,000-, 2,600-, and 3,100-Calorie Levels
• USDA Food Guide
• Discretionary Calorie Allowance in the USDA Food Guide
• Food Sources of Selected Nutrients
• Food Sources of Potassium .
• Food Sources of Vitamin E
• Food Sources of Iron
• Dairy Food Sources of Calcium
• Food Sources of Calcium .
• Food Sources of Vitamin A .
• Food Sources of Magnesium
• Food Sources of Dietary Fiber
• Food Sources of Vitamin C
• Glossary of Terms .
• Acronyms

Awesome.

Amazing Drug Injury Lawsuit Case--Employee Loses

Just to see the insanity in action, and have a nice example for marketing your EAP to deal with drug cases,  get this: An employee using Meth was injured on the job. It would have been compensable, but of course, the drug test at the hospital showed he was on Methamphetamine. So, naturally, the company said, "No way" and the Workers' Compensation Insurer said--"no way, buddy, the injury was sustained while you were on Meth."

So, this drug user says, well, the fall was your guys fault. Not mine. I was on Meth, true, but the injury was still because of your negligence. But since the Workers' Comp doesn't cover injuries when someone is using Meth or other drugs, I am suing you! I am suing for thousands of dollars because Workers' Comp doesn't cover this sort of situation anyway! Okay, so I was high as a kite. But, it was your fault I got injured. Let's go to court.

Off to court they went.

How much it cost to defend this lunacy is anyone's guess. I would love to know! However, the court said the case of the injury was in fact "the jurisdiction of the Workers' Compensation plan", the only issue was, drug-related injuries aren't covered. But the WC still protects the employer from lawsuits.

So, it is not that the WC system does not have jurisdiction. It does. It is just that WC won't cover it, even though the injury is the employer's fault. Therefore there is no remedy and you can't sue the employer becuase Workers' Compensatin protects the employer against lawsuits!

The Meth user is stuck with the medical bill. Amazing case.

Could the EAP have helped? You make the call! If this employee was referred to the EAP, the EAP could have played a role in helping this employee get treatment and talked common sense into him. That may have prevented the umteen thousand dollar legal bill to defend this case.

READ IT: http://www.riskandinsurance.com/story.jsp?storyId=510868682

Are You Giving Enough Respect to Respect Training?

If you're conducting workplace violence prevention training, be sure to not overlook subjects tangential to this topic that may be more critical in preventing a workplace violence incident than learning about the signs and symptoms of an employee prone to act violently. You know, the employee who may also have a long history of being harassed, disrespected, involved in conflicts, and who has no appropriate assertiveness skills to confront a supervisors who has bullied him or her. Are you catching my drift?

Too many training programs talk about how to spot the employee who might turn into a shooter, signs and symptoms of troubling behaviors in the workplace, and how to find the nearest exit if the bullets start flying. But preventing workplace violence is much more complex than these packages of the same old information.

There are several critical areas that need attention. Each of the following play critical roles in educating employees and supervisors in prevention of workplace violence -- conflict resolution between coworkers, respectful workplace training in general, training on the supervisor's role in supporting a respectful workplace, and training on avoiding workplace harassment and many behaviors that fall within the scope of this topic.

Then of course, the direct education and awareness about preventing workplace violence should also be include. Consider whether any of the following workplace wellness education products can assist you above.

You know what, I am going to take it one step furth and add Improving Assertiveness Skills. If you are a psychotherapist or other clinical type, you know that assertiveness is not just about asking for the last piece of pie on the table. It's about living proactively.

When one's rights are violated, stepping up to the plate to say "no" and "stop that" and if needed, heading for HR to get help could make the difference between intervention early and SWAT intervention later.

Do you need to deliver all this material at once? Of course not. And you shouldn't. Instead come back over the course of a year an sell the workplace violence prevention message by discussing these topics in their proper context. Employees will get the message, and of course the workplace tragedy you prevent will never be known. Good thing, Still take the credit. You deserve it.

Misuse and Abuse of Drugs Defined

You can be an expert on a subject and stumble over your tongue trying to explain some simple concept if you are under pressure or caught off guard. It happens to all of us. For example, can you explain in seconds the difference between misuse and abuse of drugs? I am sure you know the difference, but unless you have a rehearsed and prepared script in mind, you may back up a few times as you try to clarify the difference. It's at these special times that a handout comes in handy.

I found a great handout that discusses the difference between misuse and abuse of drugs. It was emailed to me by one of my article sources at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. There's no copyright, so you print and copy this handout and use it in trainings. It would be a good for supervisor training in workplace substance abuse or employee drug and alcohol awareness, for that matter.

http://www.fda.gov/downloads/ForConsumers/ConsumerUpdates/UCM220434.pdf

Have you previewed for free the two hour DOT alcohol and drug training web course available from WorkExcel.com? Email me here and I will send you the temporary link that launches the course. This web course has pop up handouts, test questions, a certificate of completion, feedback on wrong answers--the whole nine yards. And it's in sound. Click here to ask me to send it -- Dan, send me that free course link on Reasonable Suspicion

Presidential Memorandum has Linkages to EAP Relevance Big Time

Employee Assistance Programs are proven tools for reducing costs associated with injuries and absenteeism, and on Tuesday, a renewed opportunity for effective EAPs presented itself -- a memorandum issued by President Barack Obama.

What to do: There will be administrative efforts to monitor and encourage the goals of this memorandum, and staff positions will be created to implement and coordinate the implementation of the mandates in this memorandum. Consider discovering who these personalities are are, get on their email lists, mailng list, and find opportunities to issue press releases in your community, talk to the media, and reinforce the EAP message associated with the goals of this legislation. If you do not, EAPs will miss this opportunity for a place at the table. EAPA should establish a liaison collateral duty to confer with the Department of Labor on this initiative.
========================
The White House
Office of the Press Secretary
For Immediate Release July 19, 2010


Presidential Memorandum--The Presidential POWER Initiative: Protecting Our Workers and Ensuring Reemployment


MEMORANDUM FOR THE HEADS OF EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENTS AND AGENCIES
SUBJECT: The Presidential POWER Initiative: Protecting Our Workers and Ensuring Reemployment

Each year Federal civilian employees are injured or fall ill on the job in significant numbers. Although the Federal Government has made progress in reducing workplace injuries and illnesses in recent years, its workers (excluding those employed by the U.S. Postal Service) still filed more than 79,000 new claims and received over $1.6 billion in workers' compensation payments in fiscal year 2009. Many of these work-related injuries and illnesses are preventable, and executive departments and agencies can and should do even more to improve workplace safety and health, reduce the financial burden of injury on taxpayers, and relieve unnecessary suffering by workers and their families.

Therefore, I am establishing a 4-year Protecting Our Workers and Ensuring Reemployment (POWER) Initiative, covering fiscal years 2011 through 2014. The POWER Initiative will extend prior workplace safety and health efforts of the Federal Government by setting more aggressive performance targets, encouraging the collection and analysis of data on the causes and consequences of frequent or severe injury and illness, and prioritizing safety and health management programs that have proven effective in the past.

Under the POWER Initiative, each executive department and agency will be expected to improve its performance in seven areas

(i) reducing total injury and illness case rates;

(ii) reducing lost time injury and illness case rates;

(iii) analyzing lost time injury and illness data;

(iv) increasing the timely filing of workers' compensation claims;

(v) increasing the timely filing of wage-loss claims;

(vi) reducing lost production day rates; and

(vii) speeding employees' return to work in cases of serious injury or illness.

Executive departments and agencies (except the U.S. Postal Service) shall coordinate with the Department of Labor's Occupational Safety and Health Administration and Office of Workers' Compensation Programs to establish performance targets in each category. The Secretary of Labor shall lead the POWER Initiative by measuring both Government-wide and agency-level performance and reporting to me annually.

Each executive department and agency shall bear its own costs for participating in the POWER Initiative, and nothing in this memorandum shall be construed to impair or otherwise affect the authority granted by law to an executive department or agency, or the head thereof.


This memorandum is not intended to, and does not, create any right or benefit, substantive or procedural, enforceable at law or in equity by any party against the United States, its departments, agencies, or entities, its officers, employees, or agents, or any other person.

The Secretary of Labor is authorized and directed to publish this memorandum in the Federal Register.

BARACK OBAMA

Is Behavioral Health Cost Containment Really Worth A Diminished EAP Model?

When I hear in the national news that some employee turned violent in a horrible and tragic incident and shot coworkers, I can't help but wonder if--as the bullets flew--there wasn't in that employee's hip pocket or purse, a health insurance card and a barely visible, small type, "1-800 EAP" number printed on the back of it; a practically invisible, poorly promoted telephone helpline.

Is this sort of cost containment to prevent access to behavioral health benefits really worth it to companies? I think if they knew the real story, and had a different impresssion what risks they really face with a "DEAP" "diminished EAP", they would think twice about it.

A CT-EAP (core technology EAP) can reach out so much more, do more, and be more than what some of these benefits entities have sold or given away to America's employers. Where's the education to change all of this?

If we research the tragedies seen in the news via the Internet, would be discover that there was an EAP, but that it was a diminished model or program that appeared to have a poor promotional plan?

Of course, the next thought is whether a more effective EAP model or promotional effort would have made a difference and saved some lives with effective outreach and solid supervisory referral processes taking place in the organization.

Is health insurance "cost containment" to prevent use of behavioral health benefits, as much as possible, really worth the risk of a diminished EAP delivery model? I don't think it is.

It's simple math. Remove regular EAP promotion, visibility, and the ability to offer "high touch" access to the workforce and you will destroy top-of-mind visibility for the EAP. You will see fewer referrals, less EAP involvement in the organization, less "thinking" about how to use the EAP in new ways, and few supervisor referrals to be sure. You will get more risk to the workplace, coworkers, and the financial well-being of the organization. Only if you have worked for internal EAPs, external EAPs, and office cubicle managed care EAPs, can you truly see the enormous difference in accessibility, utilization, and risk associated with these various contrasting models.

When you get home to tonight, look on the back of your spouse or partner's insurance card. See if there is a 1-800 # to the EAP or leads to an EAP once it is called.

Then ask yourself is this EAP working? And, for whom or what?

Get information to include in your EAP Refresher Training Program here. Increase your supervisor reach and effectiveness of supervisor referral processes in your CT-EAP.