{"id":116109,"date":"2023-02-16T22:34:08","date_gmt":"2023-02-17T03:34:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/?p=116109"},"modified":"2023-02-16T22:35:20","modified_gmt":"2023-02-17T03:35:20","slug":"employee-assistance-programs-can-help-calm-lifes-chaos","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/?p=116109","title":{"rendered":"Employee Assistance Programs Can Help Calm Life\u2019s Chaos"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><b>By Capital Blue Cross \u2013 \u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/thinkcapitalbluecross.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" data-saferedirecturl=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/url?q=https:\/\/thinkcapitalbluecross.com\/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1654909453857000&amp;usg=AOvVaw3Tyb16vWed2tRPSlihIudM\">THINK<\/a>\u00a0(Trusted Health Information, News, and Knowledge) is a community publication of Capital Blue Cross. Our mission is to provide education, resources, and news on the latest health and insurance issues.<\/b><\/p>\n<p>There\u2019s no getting around the numbers. Whether in their personal or professional lives, people are increasingly prone to mental health issues, substance abuse, financial challenges, and other stressors.<\/p>\n<p>Consider:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>According to Mental Health America\u2019s 2022 data, some 50 million U.S. adults \u2013 or nearly a fifth of Americans age 18 and over \u2013 have a severe mental health issue.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>A CreditWise survey found that 73% of Americans rank their finances as life\u2019s No. 1 stressor, yet financial literacy among U.S. adults has fallen 19% over the past decade.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>Johns Hopkins Medicine reports that more than 20 million Americans have a current substance abuse disorder.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>Relationship problems, feeling overwhelmed at work, or struggling with time management can also spike stress and cause chaos in our lives.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Enter employee assistance programs, or EAPs. While people sometimes associate EAPs exclusively with behavioral health issues, they are more than that.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAs we all know in today\u2019s world, many factors go into our having good mental health,\u201d said Linda Burdge, who oversees employee benefits for Capital Blue Cross. \u201cIt is not only diagnosed health issues, be they physical or mental health, but also our relationships, our finances and even how we treat ourselves, such as through healthy eating. Our EAP vendor provides insight into all these issues and more.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>And the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services reports that \u201cEAPs can identify and address a wide range of health, financial, and social issues.\u201c<\/p>\n<p>In other words, EAPs can help employees calm some of life\u2019s chaos.<\/p>\n<div class=\"text-media article-component article-component--text_with_media\" data-v-271448cc=\"\">\n<div class=\"styled-ul\">\n<p><b>Proven results<\/b><\/p>\n<p>A National Behavioral Consortium study found 94% of EAP users reported satisfaction with EAP service, 86% showed clinical improvement after EAP assistance, work productivity increased 86%, and absenteeism declined 64%.<\/p>\n<p>A study published by the National Institutes for Health echoed the findings, reporting that EAP use reduced employees\u2019 psychological distress and absenteeism, and increased their life satisfaction, workplace productivity, and engagement.<\/p>\n<p>That comes as no surprise to Heather Windemaker, Capital Blue Cross manager of leave administration.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe overall value of EAPs is to holistically provide employees with resources to assist them,\u201d Windemaker said, \u201cand not just focus on the issue at hand.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Capital Blue Cross offers wide-ranging EAP services also available to those residing in the employee\u2019s home. All full-time and part-time Capital employees and their dependents \u2013 which include an employee\u2019s spouse and any other member of the employee\u2019s household \u2013 are eligible to use the program. Available services include general mental health, stress and anxiety, depression, grief, eldercare issues, financial wellness, substance abuse counseling, and more.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"rich-text-blok styled-ul article-component article-component--richtext\" data-v-271448cc=\"\">\n<p><b>Their best selves<\/b><\/p>\n<p>EAPs can help employees be their best selves, personally and professionally.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe recognize that we&#8217;re all human and have outside factors that effect and impact our employees,\u201d Windemaker said. \u201cHaving a good EAP allows the employee and family members to receive the help and support they need, so they have the ability to focus on daily living and activities.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Life can get messy. EAPs offer employees the solace of knowing that when it does, their company can connect them to trained professionals who can help.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><strong>You can find more useful articles at <a href=\"https:\/\/thinkcapitalbluecross.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">https:\/\/thinkcapitalbluecross.com\/<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Information provided to TVL by:<br \/>\nJERRY REIMENSCHNEIDER<br \/>\nSenior Public Relations Specialist | Brand &amp; Market Strategy<br \/>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/www.capbluecross.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">https:\/\/www.capbluecross.com\/<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Capital Blue Cross \u2013 \u00a0THINK\u00a0(Trusted Health Information, News, and Knowledge) is a community publication of Capital Blue Cross. Our mission is to provide education, resources, and news on the &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/?p=116109\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Employee Assistance Programs Can Help Calm Life\u2019s Chaos<\/span> <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":116110,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[69,5742],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-116109","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-in-the-valley","category-think"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/EAP.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116109"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=116109"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116109\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/116110"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=116109"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=116109"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=116109"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}