EAP ANSWERS: Delivering EAP in the era of Covid19.
EAP ANSWERS: Delivering EAP in the era of Covid19.
By James E. Porter, CEO StressStop.com
This week we will be kicking off a new video series, EAP ANSWERS, focusing on issues facing Employee Assistance Professionals.This segment is geared toward EAP professionals and deals specifically with the challenges of offering EAP counseling during the Covid 19 pandemic.
In this installment, we have interviewed Paul Turney, the Manager of EAP for Novant Health. Paul runs an internal EAP that covers over 30,000 workers. Many are frontline workers, employed in hospitals and clinics throughout North Carolina and neighboring states.
This program focuses on how Covid19 is affecting the delivery of EAP to the employees working in healthcare, both frontline and office workers. Meant more for EAP professionals, this video addresses topics like: What specific challenges do frontline workers face during Covid19? What challenges do office workers face? How do you help people deal with the increased fear and risk? Is there any animosity between those frontline workers (some living in hotels, so they don’t infect their families) vs. other employees who are allowed to work from home through the end of the year? How have Zoom meetings affected the delivery of EAP? We also touch upon returning to work and the blog I wrote: Dealing with the stress and fear of returning to work.
This is a unique and challenging time for EAP professionals and Paul explains what it’s like helping employees deal with the sense of loss they have, not only in dealing with death and dying, but a sense of loss over so many aspects of daily life that we always took for granted but no longer can (like getting together for a wedding or a funeral or a graduation, for example).
Here’s the link (feel free to post it or share it):
https://vimeo.com/438197802/16f09d93cf
The Employee Stress Reduction & Resilience Handbook is handy resource that could teach employees how to handle many issues they are dealing with while developing greater resilience at the same time. This 32-page workbook is truly a comprehensive guide to reducing stress and building resilience at work and while working remotely. Short one-page articles and an accompanying workbook page are devoted to topics such as: work/ family conflicts, juggling multiple priorities and figuring out how to manage their time. As well as on mindfulness, resilience, assertiveness and cognitive restructuring. Easy to mail or handout to your EAP clients. Click here for a free preview of the first several articles.
James Porter
Author