Employee Assistance Program Counseling in the U.S. Healthcare Industry: Clinical and Work Outcome Risks and Results for 15,794 Cases at CuraLinc Healthcare
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Abstract
This applied study explored the role of behavioral health issues among workers in the healthcare industry in the United States. It features highlights of our larger study in 2024 of eight different industries. The 24.9 million employees in the healthcare industry accounted for 16% of the total U.S. workforce. Recent data on number of worker, number of employers, worker age, gender, private/public sector, union representation, compensation, and safety from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics for 7 other industry categories was presented to provide context for this one industry. The study primarily featured EAP data collected over a 7-year period from employee users of individual counseling or coaching from a single national EAP business in the United States (CuraLinc Healthcare). The full sample included 85,432 clients who worked at 2,679 employers. The EAP user sample for the healthcare industry group included 15,794 employee clients who worked at 458 hospitals and healthcare companies. Longitudinal data at 30-days post use was obtained from 9,063 cases in the full sample (including 1,602 form healthcare). The healthcare industry client sample was 80% women and 20% men, average age of 40 years, 94% used the EAP for counseling (6% for coaching), 98% were voluntary self-referrals (2% were formally referred to use counseling by their manager at work), 61% met with a counselor in person (39% online video) and the typical treatment episode lasted about 7 weeks (54 days). The reasons why employees in the healthcare industry used the EAP included issues of mental health (48%), stress and personal life issues (27%), marriage and family issues (16%), work-related issues (7%) and substance use problems (2%). When starting to use the EAP many of the cases in healthcare reported having clinical level symptoms on standardized measures for anxiety disorder (44% at-risk), depression disorder (30% at-risk), alcohol misuse disorder (12% at-risk) and low work productivity (50% at problem level). Among those cases initially at clinical risk status on outcomes in the total sample, severity scores from Pre to Post were reduced by almost two-thirds for anxiety, depression, alcohol misuse and hours lost work productivity. Among those cases initially at clinical risk status on outcomes in the total sample, over three-fourths recovered to healthy status after use. Among the half of the total cases who initially had a work productivity problem, the hours of lost work productivity per case per month changed from 64 hours to 24 hours. The hours of restored work productivity was estimated to be a $1,731 value per month per case who initially had this problem. Most of these EAP use profile factors and outcome improvement results were found at similar levels for the other seven industries.