Submitted by the VCH Employee & Family Assistance Program
Workplace Strategies for Mental Health is a new free online resource, endorsed by the VCH Employee & Family Assistance Program and geared for leaders who want to better understand and support mental health in the workplace.
About the Employee & Family Assistance Program (EFAP)
EFAP offers complementary counselling and consultation services for individual, couple, family and workplace issues. Counselling can be in person, by phone , by e-counselling (secure therapeutic email) or through the Beating the Blues program—an interactive confidential online program for the treatment of anxiety and depression.
EFAP also provides free services aimed at issue prevention, including: Lifehub—a comprehensive on line wellness tool, financial counseling, legal consultation, and debriefing following a major change or incident.
Workplace groups can take advantage of a range of workshops such as teambuilding and communication skills.
EFAP is working
For those who have used EFAP, it has been a huge success with an average overall client satisfaction rating of 4.35 out of 5. The program is free and completely confidential. The program tracks the reported client distress levels including depression and anxiety, and those rates are coming down as the utilization of EFAP goes up.
Dr. Sprague says that an increase in use of EFAP is a good thing. “You might assume that an increase in access to the program means people are having more issues,” says Sprague. “We believe that the increased use of EFAP is in fact contributing to lowering rates of mental health issues. We want people to come because when they do – we can help.”
Accessing EFAP
The Employee & Family Assistance Program is completely free and confidential for VCH employees and their immediate family members. You can access the program by calling 604-872-4929 or toll-free 1-800-505-4929.
The report Building Mentally Healthy Workplaces was released by the Conference Board of Canada on June 20, 2011 and is based on a national survey of more than 1,000 employees including almost 500 front-line managers. The report was funded by Bell, Manulife Financial, Morneau Shepell, Canada Post and TD Bank Group.