Constructing barriers to Employee Assistance Program use by federal correctional officers

ABSTRACT

Correctional officers (COs) in the United States have one of the highest rates of injury and illness among all other occupations. This hidden workforce faces increased rates of suicide, divorce, and posttraumatic stress disorder due to the nature of their work. Internationally recognized and applied resources such as the Employee Assistance Program (EAP) are designed to assist officers with challenges they may face inside and outside of work, but research has noted low rates of use for this program. We take a communicative approach to investigate the challenges that may keep COs from taking advantage of the EAP. Based on interviews with 26 federal COs in the Midwest United States, we explore how officers construct barriers to EAP use by drawing a clear boundary between use of the program for ‘personal,’ but not ‘professional’ reasons. We conclude with a discussion of how practitioners can modify communication around the program to deconstruct barriers to its use.

KEYWORDS:

• Employee Assistance Program
• correctional officers
• levels of discourse
• policy
• communication

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).