Interventions to Reduce Missed Telephone Appointments at an Employee Assistance Program

ABSTRACT

This study investigated two interventions delivered during an intake procedure to 60 female and 15 male employee clients seeking telephone counseling in the employee assistance program (EAP) of a large diversified financial corporation. Clients receiving the “direct request” intervention were asked to keep their appointments out of courtesy to their counselors; clients receiving the “brief solution-focused” intervention were asked to reflect on their current coping strategies and informed that their counselors would be interested in hearing about these strategies. The effect of these two interventions on client no-show rates and counselor satisfaction ratings, as reported by 5 female and 2 male counselors, was examined. No significant differences were found between treatment and control groups. In addition, the waiting time before client appointments was found to have no significant effects on no-show rates. These results conflict to some extent with earlier research findings, and may reflect differences between telephone and face-to-face counseling. Other implications and directions for future research are discussed.