What is An Employee Assistance Programme

Employee Assistance Programmes (EAPs) are provided by some employers to
assist employees with personal or work-related problems that may affect their
ability to do their job and their wellbeing. They are normally provided by an
external company. The programme is confidential and provides support and
guidance for a variety of issues, including mental health, financial, and
relationship concerns. The form this takes varies depending on the provider
and what the employer has paid for.

In my experience, the support has been mostly in the form of a combination
of:
A 24/7 free telephone counselling service.
An online e-learning platform.
A website that signposts you to other services.
Twice an opportunity for face-to-face counselling.

My experience with EAPs has been accessing them for support with mental
health issues. I was in a deep bout of depression and found out that the EAP at
my workplace would potentially fund a short course of counselling. Though for
this, I did have to go through my manager, which was ok as they were aware
of my struggle. The forms were filled out, and within a couple of weeks, I was
off to my first session.

The session did not go well. I didn’t take kindly to being told how I felt,
despite having just explained to the counsellor how I felt. Needless to say, I
had no intention of returning. However, the EAP was not happy to fund
another counsellor, so that was the end of that.

My second experience with an EAP was with one that had a 24/7 confidential
counselling line. Sadly, on more than one occasion of accessing this, I was
treated like a box-ticking exercise and then signposted. That is not what
anyone should expect from a service that states you can phone for counselling.

My last use of an EAP, to date, was promising to start with. The people I spoke
to listened and agreed that I needed the face-to-face counselling sessions that
they offered. There was a catch, though. I had to go through a six-week,
frankly useless e-learning course first. I didn’t think the idea of an EAP was to
put more barriers in place to getting the help and support you need.

What Could They Have Done Differently?

I think one of the main issues in all of my experiences was the lack of
information on the services provided by each programme. With more
information, I could have formed an informed decision about whether it would
be the right service for me.

There was also a lack of empathy or compassion from some of the people I
spoke to. They only wanted to tick boxes and appeared to have no real interest
in helping or supporting me beyond the bare minimum. I don’t think this is a constructive approach or a good attitude when you are dealing with people
who are struggling. It certainly discouraged me.

They shouldn’t be putting up more barriers to people getting the help and
support they need. E-learning can he helpful for some, but for those who it
isn’t, it should not prevent them from accessing the correct help and support.

WRITTEN BY LORNA SMART

BLOGGER @POEMSTELLIUM

LINKEDIN:WWW.LINKEDIN.COM/IN/LORNASMARTWORDCRAFTER/