Since 1989 Brisbane Counselling Centre has been frequently contracted to supply Employee Assistance Programs to both small businesses and large corporations seeking to maintain workplace well-being.

What are Employee Assistance Programs?

Employee assistance programs are generally facilitated by a workplace, and are described as programs to improve the overall psychological health and wellbeing of their employees.

Employee assistance programs, or EAPs for short; may encompass a number of measures. They are often tailored to help employees with issues that they are currently facing, alongside building plans and long-term initiatives that are designed to foster a healthy and happy workplace.

Employees may present for a variety of reasons including:

  • trauma (e.g. hold-ups, incidents, first responders)
  • stress/anxiety/depression
  • grief/loss
  • addictions
  • conflict/bullying
  • training/skills- anger management, assertiveness skills, performance coaching, work/life balance
  • relationship issues

EAPs are not restricted to helping employees with the issues they may be facing in the workplace. They can also help individuals with their personal or family problems, in order to better equip them at work.

The Benefits of Employee Assistance Programs

Some of the more prominent effects that implementing EAPs has on your organisation is a decrease in stress for your employees, lowered turnover rates, a lowered risk of burnout and employee absences that relate to stress, higher levels of productivity and an overall happier workplace.

Making use of an EAP for your workplace is an ethically-sound decision, which places an emphasis on bettering the working conditions of your employees.

Employee Confidentiality

As with any kind of psychological support service, confidentiality is always upheld unless written permission has been provided by the client (or subpoenaed by a Court).

In order to resolve some issues, the facilitators of the EAP may be able to help employees talk with management or members of the leadership team.

Employee Assistance Programs with Brisbane Counselling Centre

Established in 1989, we provide access to highly skilled and experienced psychologists, are ready to take appointments now, don’t ask for contracts, don’t charge a ‘retainer’, respect privacy and confidentiality, do phone/Zoom consults, are committed to arranging suitable appointments within 24-48 hours of being contacted, operate six days a week and charge ‘fee for service’ only (to remove some of the financial burden on companies committed to caring for the psychological health of their workers).

We can also arrange workplace visits (including presentations and incident debriefings) where practicable.

Generally, we don’t report back to organisations statistically (e.g. periodic breakdowns of ‘presentation’ type vs. number etc), but attending practitioners may, with signed client consent, discuss ‘best interests’ workplace-related matters with appropriate workplace representatives.

If you’re after any of the aforementioned exclusions, we recommend exercising due diligence when researching (there are many ‘big’ EAP providers that can be found floating around online) service quality:

  • Access- timeliness, delivery (face-to-face, online/phone, on-site), location, administration.
  • Clinical- practitioner qualifications and experience, continuity of care, treatments and interventions.
  • Costs- rates, retainers, hidden.
  • Anonymisation, confidentiality, privacy, and depth of HR involvement.

A recent ABC Radio National broadcast “Mind Your Head: the Pros and Cons of EAPs” highlighted some of the pitfalls of engaging a third party EAP contractor:

  • Driven by a general service delivery business model rather than based on professional practice guidelines and client-based ethics.
  • Usually a substantial up-front fee and ‘lock-in’ contract.
  • Often draw from a large impermanent pool of sub-contracted practitioners, leading to ‘continuity of care’ issues.

If it’s a friendly affiliation you seek and are still interested, please call or contact us via email to obtain information on the processes required to have things run smoothly from your end and ours.

Some of the areas in which we assist businesses include:

  • trauma counselling (hold-ups, incidents, first responders)
  • grief, loss, and bereavement counselling
  • stress management and relaxation training
  • addictions, including alcohol, drugs, gambling, and sex
  • relationship issues/breakups
  • training/skills- assertiveness, time management, de-escalation, work/life balance
  • workplace conflict/bullying/mediation
  • anger management
  • performance coaching

If you think that your company could benefit from an Employee Assistance Program, please give us a call on 07 3831 4452. Our receptionists are very kind and friendly and are always keen to assist with any questions you may have.

We look forward to being of help!

Get in touch

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FAX (07) 3831 4457
Opening Hours:
Mon-Fri 7:30am-7:00pm
Sat 8:00am-5:00pm

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