An Elder Care Training Needs Assessment Among Employee Assistance Program Staff Employed by New York State Government:

Abstract

A mail survey of 224 EAP staff members employed by various departments of New York State government explored the issue of elder care. Self-report questionnaire data evaluated training history competence to handle employed caregiver problems/questions, and individual department commitment. Major findings generally replicated those of a previous regional study conducted with 95 Western New York EAP staff members. Survey results showed: (1) EAP staff members estimated that one in five employees currently provides care for an older dependent; (2) the majority (56.9%) of staff members have not received any training relevant to elder care; (3) self-assessed competence to handle elder care problems was low for 13 of 17 problem-solving domains constituting the Elder Care Competence Index (ECCI); (4) the few (14.9%) EAP staff members with extensive (two or more sessions) elder care training experience achieved ECCI scores nearly 150% higher than staff members without such training, p < .001; (5) most (73.0%) departments have not dealt with elder care in any formal way and only 3.6% of the EAP staff believe this inaction to be appropriate; and (6) department commitment to the issue of elder care is predictive of both training (p < .01) and staff competence (p < .01). The implications for training, policy, and future research are discussed.