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Counseling * Consulting * Training
Federal Occupational Health (FOH) Study Finds EAPs Improve Health and Productivity
The Federal Occupational Health (FOH) Employee Assistance Program (EAP) division recently found that employees who utilize the services of the EAP experienced significant improvements in absence and tardiness; psychosocial functioning; and productivity. The study found that the EAP had the following effect:
Unplanned absences and tardiness from work decreased an average of 1.5 days per EAP client
Counselors’ clinical assessment of the clients’ general psychosocial functioning, based on the GAF, rose an average of 10%
People reporting a great amount of difficulty in their daily work due to emotional problems prior to counseling displayed a 73% improvement in productivity
The report released on September 27, 2004, evaluated the effectiveness of the department’s EAP based on the collection of three years worth of data from 60,000 EAP clients. The FOH is a service unit within the Department of Health and Human Services’ Program Support Center. FOH provides a variety of occupational health and wellness programs within the federal government and is the largest provider of EAP services to federal employees. The sample group of the study consisted of both federal employees and eligible family members from over 400 agencies that belong to the FOH EAP consortium from July 1, 1999, to June 30, 2002.
FOH obtained information that measured the functioning of six separate areas: productivity affected by mental health; productivity affected by physical health; work and social relationships; general health status; absenteeism and tardiness; and a Global Assessment of Functioning. Clients and their counselors completed questionnaires before utilizing EAP services and upon completion of EAP counseling services. Counselors used the GAF scale, a diagnostic measuring of psychological functioning, to evaluate the performance of the services. The full report, “EAP Impact on Work, Relationship, and Health Outcomes,” by Rick Selvik, L.I.C.S.W.,M.B.A., Diane Stephenson, Ph.D., Chris Plaza, M.S., and Brian Sugden, Ph.D., M.B.A., is available at
www.openminds.com/indres/foheap.htm<http://www.openminds.com/indres/foheap.htm>