Top 5 Myths about EAP

by Charles Martin

Published on this site: October 18th, 2006 - See more articles from this month

1. You must find an EAP in your city or state.
   
   Finding an EAP in your home city or state makes little to no difference in the scope and quality of service you will receive from your EAP. Most EAPs have an extensive nation-wide network of counselors. Let's say your company is based in St. Louis. An EAP in New York might actually have more counselors under contract in St. Louis than another EAP that is actually based in St. Louis. It is important to remember that EAPs are facilitators and they can perform their tasks sucessfully from any location within the United States. Instead of being concerned about the location of an EAP, you should concern yourself with their network coverage in your area. It's alot like cell phone reception. If you live in Key West, Florida and your shopping for a new cell phone plan, would you be concerned with how well Cingular covers your area, or if they have an office down the street.
   
   
2. EAP can only assist in facilitating mental health treatment for your troubled employees.
   
   This issue is a hot topic among EAPs. There are some EAPs that focus solely on facilitating mental health treatment for your troubled employees. After all, this is how EAP began and what it was originally intended for. However, there are some EAPs that are evolving and offering extra incentives to their client's employees. These extra incentives vary from EAP to EAP and can range from pet care to fitness training. The EAPs that only provide mental health services would argue that offering these types of unrelated incentives could dilute the value of traditional EAP services. The EAPs that offer these extra incentives would argue they are further promoting the overall wellness of each employee thus these extra services could prevent future mental health problems for their client's employees. Looking at current trends you could argue that the leading EAPs are evolving into a more balanced view on this subject. They seem to be offering wellness related services such as health clinics, fitness management, and even substance abuse testing services and preventative programs. But, they are not offering pet care, travel incentives, coupon books etc. Again, this will vary from EAP to EAP.
   
   
3. EAP will have little effect on your bottom line
   
   Nothing could be further from the truth. Many companies that utilize EAP services experience a tremendous return on their investment. Troubled employees cost the company money in productivity and job loss. The EAP is specifically designed to drastically improve this by providing treatment and preventative care for your employees. When choosing an EAP ask
   them for client references and you will likely be inundated with testimonies from companies that state a positive impact on their overall bottom line.
   
   
4. EAP is an expensive benefit
   
   There are certain EAPs that do over charge for their services. But, you can likely find a great EAP for a little over a dollar per employee per month. EAPquotes.com is a must visit web site when it comes to comparing EAP services and costs. They have an online form that you can fill out in a few minutes, select which EAP will receive your contact info, and press "submit". Within hours you will receive customized cost proposals from some of the nations leading EAPs. Click on the link below to access EAPquotes.com
   
   
5. There are really only a handful of employee assistance programs out there.
   
   This may have been true in 1980 but no longer. There are over a hundred active, nation-wide, employee assistance programs in the United States today.

We hope this article has clarified some common myths related to EAP. Good luck in finding the right EAP fit for your company!

Charles Martin: Employee assistance program will take you to the site mentioned in myth 4. From http://www.eapweb.com/ the beginning of EAP on the internet.