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EMPLOYERS NEED TO PAY FOR EMPLOYEES' COST OF SEEKING COUNSELING HELP RIGHT THROUGH TO PROBLEM RESOLUTION COMPANIES NEED TO LIFT THE FINANCIAL BARRIER TO EMPLOYEES SEEKING EFFECTIVE MENTAL HEALTH AND WELLNESS IN THEIR LIVES. Too many companies still buy EAP services that offer only limited sessions (3- 4 sessions) who then refer employees to other counseling services that most often require hourly payments.  And in these cases, employees don’t have the financial wherewithal to pay so they stop seeking help with their problems. When I first started EAPs, I knew people needed easy access to help with mental health issues and emotional problems - either personally or/and in their relationships, when they needed it. It was tough, and still is, in many organizations, to get companies to pay for mental health and wellness counseling for employees through to problem resolution. Most started with paying for very brief (2 3 session model) counseling. Then the employee or family member was
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    THERE IS AN ELEPHANT IN THE ROOM – MANY SERIOUS MENTAL HEALTH PROBLEMS ORIGINATE FROM UNABATED WORKPLACE HARASSMENT   Organizations spend an enormous amount of money on employees’ mental health – treatment, decreased productivity, presenteeism, absenteeism, short and long-term disability, and losing, then replacing what were excellent employees who have dropped out. 50% of workplace harassed employees experience mental-health-related problems according to research conducted in 2015 by the Canadian Mental Health Commission of Canada.  A survey by the Workplace Bullying Institute came up with similar results a year earlier.  Harassment causes a variety of mental health disorders in employees including shame; serious stress; panic attacks; unbearable anxiety; severe and debilitating depression; Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD ); and can trigger the onset of serious physical illnesses as well.  The employees suffer, they are afraid to go to work, and the organization ends
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  ORGANIZATIONS NEED MORE THAN AN EAP: 10 EMPLOYEE SKILLS ORGANIZATIONS CAN TEACH THEIR EMPLOYEES AND IMPROVE THEIR WELL-BEING  Improved Mental Health in the Workplace. I am honored to be a pioneer and initiator of many "firsts" in the Employee Assistance Program (EAP) arena across many employers. I made it "easy access" for employees and their family members to seek help and counseling for their emotional and mental health problems. Not all employees affected adversely use the EAP when they could have used professional counseling but many did and still do. Today, EAP is still useful. Emotional and mental health problems are unplanned events. They occur and immediate help and counseling needs to be available for those people. In your corporate focus, although there are differing opinions, I advocate for a separation between physical health illnesses and mental health illnesses even though they should be both accepted as everyday occurrences when they do occur. You n
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  WHAT IS MENTAL HEALTH?  Improved Mental Health in the Workplace. I think it is important to stand back for a second and remind ourselves as to WHAT IS MENTAL HEALTH. There is an enormous amount of dialogue and implementation of numerous activities and programs around mental health in the workplace today. Do we know what mental health is? Forgive me if I sound simplistic but indulge me for a few seconds. Some people innocently confuse mental health with mental illness. They are thinking mental health issues, problems, and illness when they say mental health. Not true. One way to catch yourself is to think physical health. If you say someone has physical health, you are saying they are physically healthy. Similarly, if someone has mental health, they are mentally healthy. Therefore, by creating activities and programs around mental health, you are striving to improve the mental health of employees and decease the incidence of mental health issues, problems, and illness. We have had Emp
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