Resources for Employers Interested in Employee Assistance Programs: A Summary of EASNA's Purchaser's Guide and Research Notes

Abstract

Most people in business now recognize the need for effective workplace behavioral health support services. The Employee Assistance Program (EAP) has emerged as a prime resource to help address this need. However, due to the growth of the EAP field, it has become challenging for employers and the business consultants who advise them to determine what is the right kind of EAP program, how to confidently select the right provider of EAP services, and how to best implement an EAP program so it is effective and delivers value to the organization. There are now a variety of resources that can support EAP purchasers and program managers in making these kinds of decisions. This article identifies five employer guides for EAP and other guides for related topics of behavioral health, mental health, and substance abuse and misuse. An in-depth summary is provided of the 2009 report from the Employee Assistance Society of North America (EASNA), called Selecting and Strengthening Employee Assistance Programs: A Purchaser's Guide. Also summarized are the first 10 issues of the new series of brief reports from EASNA called Research Notes. All of these publications from EASNA are available to the public at no cost from the association's Web site (www.easna.org).

KEYWORDS:

• behavioral health
• Employee Assistance Program (EAP)
• Employee Assistance Society of North America (EASNA)
• knowledge transfer
• mental health
• purchaser guide
• research
• substance abuse