EAP: What to know about free counselling sessions at work

The number of Kiwi employers offering workers free counselling sessions and other well-being help, known as EAP, has been on the rise.

1News speaks to industry representatives and an union organiser about what the benefits for employees and workplaces are, and a few important things those taking up the services should know.

According to surveys of BusinessNZ members, the number of large employers offering "employee assistance programmes" rose from around 60% in 2014 to well over 90% in 2022.

Employee assistance programmes, known as EAPs, usually come in the form of free counselling sessions paid for by an employer. These sessions are taken with a qualified therapist or psychologist and can be arranged directly with the provider.

Several large providers currently specialise in providing therapy sessions to companies.

During the pandemic, counsellors saw growth in the number of people taking on their free sessions, according to industry expert Julie Cressey.

She said the most common use of EAP services had been for relationship issues, anxiety, and grief, but that providers covered a huge range of issues linked to mental well-being.

Cressy represents New Zealand companies at the Employee Assistance Professional Association of Australasia, an industry body for providers.

She said one of the biggest benefits is that sessions don't cost the employee anything, and could make it faster for them to see a therapist or counsellor.

"If you wanted to go and use a trained professional in the marketplace, it's expensive and can be time-consuming," she said.

"It can take a lot of time to find the right person and ultimately get the support you need. While with an EAP, people can often get the support they need faster."

Some sessions specialised in helping with specific circumstances, but counsellors would try to help with "anything that's going on in people's lives", Cressey said. She cited anxiety as a growing presenting issue.

"Whether it's parenting, elder care, financial anxiety, health anxiety. We saw rain anxiety as a result of what happened with Cyclone Gabrielle.

"Depending on the programme, some will offer financial coaching, some will offer nutrition, and some will offer support around career coaching — because in some organisations, there's uncertainty or restructuring."

E tū union director Mat Danaher said his representatives often referred people to EAP providers if their employers offered it.

"One of the things they're good at — and which certainly is not the job of your manager, or your HR person, or your union delegate — is helping you identify issues, get to understand why you're feeling like you're feeling, and also sometimes just to be somebody to listen to what your issues are," he said.

"It's when people can't quite work out what the cause of the stress or the anguish is. It's not ultimately about EAP, it's about what it provides — it's basically therapists, counsellors and people who can support you."

Counselling and all health providers have legal obligations to protect patient privacy, which means case notes or other personal information can't be shared without a person's permission — unless there's a serious risk of harm to themselves or others.

Providers will typically have a privacy policy available on their website that outlines the specifics of who can see your information.

Cressey said employers could only be given limited information about data like organisational trends, alongside a regular invoice for the total number of hours that employees had taken.

"It's a natural element that when an organisation is paying for something, people do wonder, 'well, what actually happens with the information'," she said.

"But the bedrock of any EAP programme is always privacy and confidentiality."

She added: "The only information that the employer is going to get is around usage — how many people use the service, how many hours were used, and sometimes presenting themes — so what's going on across the organisation."

The expert said providing information like overarching trends would be different in smaller businesses where it would be easier to figure out who they related to.

"Really small organisations would probably only get an annual overview because if you gave too much information too soon, it could potentially identify the information," she said.

"One of the things that all EAPs will do is make sure that the data that they're providing is unidentifiable, and if there's any risk to that, then they wouldn't provide the information."

Danaher said he hadn't fielded any issues about confidentiality from union members: "We've certainly not seen any evidence of things to be concerned about there."

With most employers only offering a limited number of sessions, people taking up free sessions needed to be conscious they were a short-term measure, Cressey said.

"EAP is a short-term solution programme, and it's encouraging people to get support early, because some people wait too long.

"Then what may have been something that could have been resolved in a few sessions, is something that has become very embedded, and can take much longer to actually resolve."

Meanwhile, for employers, Danaher cautioned that EAPs were "part of the puzzle", but that they shouldn't be treated as the whole picture when it came to mental wellbeing cases which involved potential overwork or toxic workplaces.

He pointed to instances where stress, directly related to a working environment, could come from "changes in work patterns, increase in expectations or personality clashes".

"EAP is not there to address the root causes, it's there to help you deal with the consequences of the causes," he said.

"Employers have an obligation to provide a safe workspace and that includes one that's mentally safe — people are safe from mental injury.

"Simply signposting your staff to an EAP service by itself without addressing the root causes of stress in the first place — while dismissing the idea that work could be one of the root causes of the issue — is obviously not good enough.

The union representative added: "It's not always deliberate, either. Sometimes it's the employer not actually thinking things through what is the risk to themselves".

The upside for employers of offering mental health help often involves an argument for greater productivity in the long term.

Research overseas has shown companies offering services like EAP are more likely to retain staff members for longer and reduce absenteeism.

Cressey said there had been an increase in awareness among companies about how mental well-being affected workers since the pandemic began.

"Covid brought to the forefront the impacts on families, on individuals, on organisations, and on their people. It was much more evident that mental health and wellbeing was something that organisations want to support their people with," she said.

"The better that people can cope and manage what's coming their way, the more productive and happier employees can be."