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General Information
Brookhaven's Employee Assistance Program (EAP) is a free confidential service available to help all BNL employees and their family members solve personal problems that may affect health, well-being or job performance.
Confidential help is available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, at no cost to you and your family members.
Services
Telephonic Coaching
Some employees may be reluctant to come in to EAP for an in-person appointment, out of fear, embarrassment, shame or issues of confidentiality. In that case, if the employee is self-referred, and not a job performance problem, the employee may request a telephonic coaching session. The concept of “life coaching” is more acceptable for some people who resist the idea of counseling for a mental health problem.
Managerial/Supervisory EAP Briefings and Consultations
Occasionally a manager or supervisor will be handling a difficult situation in their department that might be affecting the department as a whole, or the job performance of one individual. If efforts to resolve the problem on their own do not work, the supervisor or manager may request guidance from EAP at X4567. In many cases, a short confidential discussion will give them a better perspective about how to approach the situation. The EAP Manager is also available to come to your department for a short (30 minute) EAP briefing, available on PowerPoint, targeted at your general employee population or toward your Managers/Supervisors on how to utilize EAP and how to make an EAP referral. EAP is also available to provide specific talks on specialized topics such as Resolving Conflict. Managing Stress, and Critical Incident Debriefing (for special circumstances such as violence, co-worker illness, etc.)
Counseling and Referral
Many personal problems can be resolved by short term counseling. Often, all it takes is a sympathetic listener for an employee to identify the cause of what is troubling to them so that they can attempt a course of action. In other cases where a domestic or personal situation is long-standing, EAP can identify the best way to address the problem and will work to find treatment resources using the employee’s health insurance plan. If an outside referral is identified, EAP will follow-up with the employee to determine if the referral was the best fit, and how the situation is working out.
Job Performance Referrals
If an employee’s job performance has been affected by an issue that impacts on his/her ability to meet their job demands, the employee might be referred by their Human Resource Manager or direct supervisor. The types of job performance problems that might warrant EAP involvement are:
- Interpersonal conflicts
- Violation of Lab policies
- Declining overall performance, errors, inability to get the job done
- Poor communication
- Lack of follow-through on job responsibilities
- A Fitness for Duty Evaluation
In any of the above situations, the employee’s situation would be individually assessed. If any Fitness for Duty issues are identified, they will be handled according to established protocol in SBMS.
Self-Referrals
Most employees who seek EAP services are “self-referred,” because they heard about EAP through a supervisor or co-worker, attended a talk, saw a poster, etc. If an employee is self-referred, no contact is made with any supervisor. The help is completely confidential. Employees are urged, if they are self-referred to make appointments that do not interfere with their normal job responsibilities, or if they choose to discuss their EAP involvement with their supervisor they make appointments that coordinate with departmental coverage needs.
