Mental health practitioners’ strategies in equine-assisted psychotherapy: implications for social work

Equine-assisted psychotherapy (EAP), in this study, which included a mental health practitioner, an equine specialist, at least one horse, and a client in therapy sessions, is emerging in social work practice, education, and research. The purpose of this paper was to explore experienced EAP mental health practitioners’ cognitive activities and strategies to inform the social work profession.

Utilizing a constructive narrative approach, eight experienced EAP mental health practitioners participated. Two semi-structured, face-to face, individual interviews were used to gain their perspectives. Qualitative software assisted thematic analysis. The findings included a main theme identified as participants’ concrete strategies used in EAP with two subthemes. The second main theme identified abstract strategies with six subthemes.

EAP provides a holistic framework as social workers incorporate horses and natural environments in practice, which is consistent with systems theory. The findings inform experienced mental health practitioners to be effective therapists and educators, as well as to instill confidence in novices. Recommendations for the application of the findings in social work practice, education, and research are explained.     

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

Contemporary employee assistance program (EAP) services are typically provided in broad-brush programs delivered by large external vendors in a network model. Yet research has not kept pace with EAP evolution, including in terms of how EAP clients themselves view services. We surveyed a random sample of EAP service users from a national provider (361 respondents). About one-third of respondents reported getting help for workplace issues. Most learned about the EAP through employer communications such as the company website. The large majority reported that the EAP helped them "a lot" or "some," suggesting they valued this benefit.     

Experiences of internal and hybrid employee assistance program managers: Factors associated with successful,at-risk,and eliminated programs

Employee Assistance Programs (EAPs) originated as workplace-focused programs delivered largely by peer employees. Over the past 25 years, the once standard internal EAP has largely been replaced by internal/external hybrid programs or outsourced EAP vendors. Many long-standing internal programs have been downsized or eliminated, along with their internal program manager positions. This qualitative study examined the organizational, leadership, and programmatic characteristics associated with the internal and internal/hybrid EAPs from the perspectives of EAP managers working in programs that have thrived and those that have depreciated. Twenty-four current and former internal or internal/hybrid EAP managers were interviewed using a semistructured interview schedule. Qualitative methods were used to identify patterns and themes within the data to describe the experience of internal and internal/hybrid EAP managers and the critical success and risk factors associated with their positions and programs. Five final themes, with 15 subthemes emerged from the data, suggesting that both individual and organizational characteristics of EAP internal and hybrid programs are important to the program’s sustainability. These findings offer insights regarding best practices and critical success factors to EAP professionals, EAP purchasers, and the EAP industry.     

A place for marriage and family services in employee assistance programs (EAPs): a survey of EAP client problems and needs

Marriage and family services have not been widely recognized as part of employee assistance programs (EAP), although family and relational problems are widely cited as sources of problems on the job. EAP clients (N = 800, 97% self-referred) indicated how much family, psychological/emotional, drug, alcohol, employment-related, legal, and medical problems troubled them and the need for services in each area. Psychological/emotional (66%) and family (65%) problem areas frequently were rated "considerable" or "extreme." Both areas were rated as "considerable" or "extreme" by 48.6% of participants. In view of the evidence that marriage and family services can be effective with both family and psychological/emotional problems, professionals who are competent to provide such services have much to offer EAP programs.     

Needs Assessment for a University-Based Employee Assistance Program

Between 10-20 percent of the total employee population in any institution of higher education are troubled employees. The lack of visibility and the absence of structure, especially in faculty positions, are risk factors. Higher education has become proactive in developing Employee Assistance Programs (EAPs) in response to organizational personnel problems. A needs assessment survey was conducted to ascertain the need for a university-based EAP in a state university in southern California. The findings suggested that EAP services were needed.     

The EAP Counselor:

The author conducted a qualitative study of EAP counselors and clients in which they were asked to describe in detail their experiences as EAP counselors. This article describes the findings of one section of the larger study concerning the counselors' attitudes toward their work, their preparation for the field, and the field in general.     

Evaluating Organizations Through an Employee Assistance Program Using an Organization Development Model

This article describes one of the first accounts of an Employee Assistance Program (EAP) staffed by a social worker in industry in the United States. The author was the social worker employed in this EAP (called the Industrial Social Work Project) which was originally motivated by a vice president's concern over employee turnover. The article describes in detail how the EAP was operationalized and used to evaluate the organizational culture by using an organizational development model which involved five overlapping phases. These were: (1) orientation/information gathering; (2) individual treatment; (3) research on cultural change; (4) team building and O.D. projects; and (5) O.D. management training. The main contention of this article is that organizations do in fact contribute to the "professional suicide" of employees, and those who plan to evaluate ENS are remiss not considering the organization context of such programs and their possible impact on employees.     

Prerequisites of EAP Evaluation:

This chapter's main contention is that EAP evaluators, coordinators and administrators need to spend more time in thoughtfully planning EAP evaluations as such activities directly influence the quality of any subsequent evaluation. The chapter outlines four prerequisites to be considered in this regard. These are: (1) a sincere commitment to evaluate the program, (2) answering the why, when, and how of the evaluation; (3) the goals and objectives of the EAP require specification; and (4) information should be in retrievable form. These prerequisites are discussed within the context of a cooperative planning process between the administration, the EAP coordinator and EAP evaluator(s), and are described as to how they may directly influence the EAP evaluation.     

Total Quality Management of EAP Vendors

Employers are increasingly turning to benefits consulting firms to help them plan the management of employee mental health care costs. With evolving employee assistance and managed care programs, employers need to be "informed consumers." Direct marketing by EAP vendors is no longer the most effective business strategy. Most employers want to get an impartial third party opinion on what their needs are, the type of program(s) best suited to their organization and which vendor can best meet those needs. Quality and cost are of primary concern. This article addresses the specific elements that are examined by a benefits consultant in review and selection of EAP vendors with a particular emphasis on total quality management.     

An Elder Care Training Needs Assessment Among Employee Assistance Program Staff Employed by New York State Government:

A mail survey of 224 EAP staff members employed by various departments of New York State government explored the issue of elder care. Self-report questionnaire data evaluated training history competence to handle employed caregiver problems/questions, and individual department commitment. Major findings generally replicated those of a previous regional study conducted with 95 Western New York EAP staff members. Survey results showed: (1) EAP staff members estimated that one in five employees currently provides care for an older dependent; (2) the majority (56.9%) of staff members have not received any training relevant to elder care; (3) self-assessed competence to handle elder care problems was low for 13 of 17 problem-solving domains constituting the Elder Care Competence Index (ECCI); (4) the few (14.9%) EAP staff members with extensive (two or more sessions) elder care training experience achieved ECCI scores nearly 150% higher than staff members without such training, p < .001; (5) most (73.0%) departments have not dealt with elder care in any formal way and only 3.6% of the EAP staff believe this inaction to be appropriate; and (6) department commitment to the issue of elder care is predictive of both training (p < .01) and staff competence (p < .01). The implications for training, policy, and future research are discussed.     

An Elder Care Training Needs Assessment Among Employee Assistance Program Staff

A mail survey of 95 EAP staff members explored the issue of elder care (employee informal care and company formal policy) and collected data pertinent to training needs, competence to handle employed caregiver problems/questions, and company commitment. Major findings were: (1) EAP staff members estimated that one in five employees currently provides care for an older dependent; (2) most (74.5%) staff have not received any training relevant to elder care; (3) self-assessed competence to handle elder care problems was low for 14 of 17 problem-solving domains constituting the Elder Care Competence Index (ECCI), less than half of the respondents felt competent; (4) the few (13.8%) EAP staff members with extensive (2 or more sessions) elder care-specific training experience achieved ECCI scores nearly double those of other workers, p < .01; (5) most (78.8%) companies have not dealt with the issue in any formal way and only 7.6% of their EAP staff believe this inaction to be appropriate; and (6) company commitment (i.e., formal policy- issue studied, offered programs/services or benefits) is directly related to EAP training (p < .01) and consequently to staff competence ( < .05). The implications for training, policy, and future research are discussed.     

The Role of Supervisory Referral in Employee Assistance Programs

Abstract

A growing number of organizations offer Employee Assistance Programs (EAPs) to help employees with their personal problems. Many organizations rely on their supervisors to help identify and refer troubled employees to the EAP for assistance, yet very little conclusive evidence exists regarding the factors that influence whether or not supervisors identify and intervene with troubled employees. A previous review of the literature (Nord & Littrell, 1989) found that the following variables were consistently related to referral: (a) degree of management support for the EAP, (b) gender of supervisor, (c) gender of subordinate, (d) existence of a supervisor network, (e) occupational category of the employees supervised, (f) social distance between supervisor and troubled employee, (g) supervisors' attitude toward their role in referral, and (h) supervisor knowledge of the EAP. However, results of some of the studies reviewed for the current paper were inconsistent with Nord and Littrell's (1989) findings. Additional research is needed in this area, including research on the effectiveness of EAP supervisory training, in order to provide guidelines for the administration of effective EAP programs.     

The Role of Needs Assessment in the Design of Employee Assistance Programs:

This paper describes the value of a multimethod needs assessment in developing and tailoring an employee assistance program (EAP) to the particular characteristics, problems, and resources of an organization and then provides an illustration of an EAP needs assessment conducted for a city municipality. Unique concerns of city employees, and the specific EAP programs designed to address these concerns, are highlighted.     

EMPLOYER CHOICES IN EAP DESIGN AND WORKSITE SERVICES

In today's complex private healthcare market, employers have varied preferences for particular features of behavioral health products such as Employee Assistance Programs (EAPs). Factors which may influence these preferences include: establishment size, type of organization, industry, workplace substance abuse regulations, and structure of health insurance benefits. This study of 103 large employer purchasers from a single managed behavioral healthcare organization investigated the impact of such variables on the EAP features that employers select to provide to workers and their families. Our findings indicate that for this group of employers, preferences for the type and delivery mode of EAP counseling services are fairly universal, while number of sessions provided and choices for EAP-provided worksite activities are much more varied, and may be more reflective of the diverse characteristics, organizational missions and workplace culture found among larger employers in the US.     

The Current State of Evaluation Practices in Employee Assistance Programs,San Francisco

This study assessed the current state of evaluation practices within Employee Assistance Programs (EAPs). Because of structural variation and previous design problems, an examination of EAPs was needed. The sample consisted of 34 EAPs, primarily drawn from the San Francisco ALMACA chapter. A Program Survey was sent to each EAP, which included a demographics and an evaluation section. This study found that 59% of the sample reported conducting program evaluation and another 20% planned future evaluations. The findings of this study suggest a trend toward an increasing awareness of the value of EAP evaluation; however, important issues still need to be addressed.     

Evaluation of an employee assistance program at a transportation company

The purpose of this study was to determine the effectiveness of an Employee Assistance Program (EAP) in terms of selected work performance indicators and treatment outcomes. Three primary data sources were utilized: a questionnaire administered to EAP users, reports from EAP counsellors on treatment diagnoses and outcomes, and employee records on absenteeism and other performance criteria over a five year time period. On the whole, EAP clients reported very favourable outcomes regarding the quality of services and improved well being, and the counsellors reported successful treatment outcomes. However, employee records on performance outcomes indicated that EAP clients had higher rates of problems before, during and after treatment, compared to a matched control group. Additionally, rates of sick days significantly increased from before to after treatment among EAP users.     

Preparing marriage and family therapy students to become employee assistance professionals*

While the number of Employee Assistance Programs (EAPs) has grown tremendously, opportunities for marriage and family therapists in EAP settings have not been adequately described. This paper addresses issues pertinent to training Marriage and Family Therapy (MFT) students to develop the skills needed to become EAP professionals. Qualifications for becoming an EAP professional are described and suggestions are made as to how these skills may be taught within the framework of an academically based MFT training program.     

Resistant Employees

The goal of Employee Assistance Programs (EAP) is to assist employees with a host of emotional, behavior, and family problems which interfere with their ability to function optimally on the job (Sussal & Ojakian, 1988). EAP counselors work to quickly identify, assess and resolve employees' problems. Frequently, there are employees, who seek EAP assistance, but are resistant to changing their behavior. The purpose of this article is to propose the use of Brief Counseling (BC) intervention techniques with resistant employees.     

The Utility of Personality Inventories in the Employee Assistance Process

Abstract

A study was conducted to assess the usefulness of objective measures of personality in (a) the identification of employees in need of an employee assistance program (EAP) and (b) the evaluation of employee mental health change as a result of EAP participation. In addition, comparisons of EAP referred and non-referred employees were made on race, sex, age, and performance variables. MMPI, CPI, and SRA-Verbal Form test data from all or part of a sample of 376 police officers referred for fitness-for-duty evaluations were used in various analyses. Many of the officers were reassessed following an EAP intervention, while others chose not to accept the intervention (forming a natural control group). It was found that the MMPI-2 has the potential utility in both the identification and evaluation stages of the EAP process. Males and black employees were found to more likely to be referees to an EAP. Finally, it was found that referred employee performance was more than a half a standard deviation lower than that of non-referred employees.