Employee Assistance Program (EAP) is a work-based intervention program designed to assist employees in resolving personal issues that may affect the employee's performance. The core service of EAP is confidential counselling. Confidential counselling is a short-term and solution-focussed services offered to individual employee. Employees and immediate family members (in some cases) have 24/7 access to qualified counsellors for any psychological problems. EAP also focus on pro-active and preventive measures to help organisations better understand and prepare for mental health issues arising from work/life situations. The focus in EAP is to enhance the level of the employee’s well-being and to promote a positive workplace culture.

AccessEAP is the leading Employee Assistance Programs (EAP) provider in Australia since 1989. We have wide geographical spread with offices in all major cities and regional centres with over 1,000 qualified counsellors. We provide robust and wide spread coverage ensuring our capability to meet the needs of our clients. AccessEAP is a not-for-profit (NFP) organisation, our surplus profit is distributed by the Curran Access Children’s Foundation to support children’s welfare programs and indigenous children at risk in the community.

Employee Assistance Programs (EAPs) are characterised by the underlying concept that improving workers quality of life results in increased employee productivity and in turn increased profitability for the organisation. Research indicates EAPs have a significant positive impact on personal and work functioning and can produce a Return on Investment (ROI) of between 5-10 times the employer’s investments.

EAP Counselling is focused on resolving employee psychological issues with the help of a qualified professional counsellor. People turn to counselling when they feel depressed, anxious, bullied, under stress or at crossroads in their lives. EAP Counselling gives them the chance to talk things through, very often relieving building emotional pressure, clearing the way for them to focus and decide what to do next. EAP Counselling can provide your employees with a sense of direction in working through their problems.

Common issues client discuss during counselling include:

• Personal issues
• Work / life effectiveness
• Relationship issues
• Interpersonal conflict
• Working relationships
• Substance abuse
• Gambling
• Trauma
• Depression
• Grief and Loss
• Financial Problems
• Anxiety
• Parenting
• Legal problems

AccessEAP’s counsellors are required to be qualified at higher education level with extensive practical experience. Our counsellors are either member of Australian Psychological Society (APS) or Australian Association of Social Workers (AASW) and have fulfilled registration requirement with Psychology Board of Australia (PBA). All counsellors with AccessEAP have minimum 5 years’ post graduate supervised clinical experience; and adherence to the professional codes of ethics.

One of the main inhibitors to using an EAP service is the uncertainty about privacy and confidentiality. AccessEAP understands confidentiality is crucial; therefore, employees are advised about confidentiality both prior to and during the first EAP counselling session. If an individual client wishes for the organisation to know about their counselling, the employee must sign a release of information form specifying the content and conditions of any disclosure of information. AccessEAP is attentive to our responsibilities for the confidentiality of individual client’s undertaking counselling and their employer organisation, as well as its obligations under the law. We are extremely sensitive to both the legal and ethical confidentiality requirements.

Many people ring us with some uncertainty about making an appointment. There can be thoughts about trying to resolve things by yourself, or concerns about wasting a counsellor's time and depriving other ‘more deserving’ people from getting help. We try to reassure people who call that their concerns are valid, and that many people are relieved and ‘helped’ after just one visit. It's not too different to making an appointment to see a Doctor. Often we delay making an appointment, thinking that the problem may go away, or that we can just put up with it. Working with a trained professional who is outside our world is a progressive and positive part of the process.

Whilst most people on average come for 6 sessions or less, there are some particularly difficult life situations where longer term support is appropriate. In circumstances where the counselling support falls outside the scope of the Employee Assistance Program (EAP), we endeavour to offer you continuity with the same counsellor at affordable rates. In some situations continuing visits may be covered by Private Health Insurance.

At AccessEAP, we welcome and encourage all our clients give direct feedback to us. You have every right to want the best for yourself, and a good counsellor will welcome your feedback. If you are uncomfortable giving your counsellor feedback, please contact AccessEAP directly and we will assist you with the most helpful response. We encourage every user of the service to give us feedback about the standard of service and the impact of counselling. Please request a feedback form from your counsellor. It is vital for us to maintain our quality level of service.