Employee Assistance Program Counseling in the U.S. Financial Industry: Clinical and Work Outcome Risks and Results for 11,895 Cases at CuraLinc Healthcare
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Abstract
This applied study explored the role of behavioral health issues among workers in the financial industry in the United States. The financial industry (including related fields of banking, insurance and business management) accounts for 6% of the U.S. workforce in year 2024. The study 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 different employers. The EAP user sample for the financial group included 11,895 employee clients who worked at 551 different employers. Longitudinal data at 30-days post use was obtained from 9,063 cases in the full sample of which 1,153 were from the financial industry. The financial industry client sample was 66% women and 34% men, average age of 41 years, 95% used the EAP for counseling (5% for coaching), 99% were voluntary self-referrals (1% formally referred to use counseling by their manager at work), 56% met with a counselor in-person at a local office (44% used online video) and the typical treatment episode lasted about 7 weeks (49 days). Reasons why these employees used the EAP included issues of mental health (45%), stress and personal life issues (29%), marriage and family issues (17%), work-related issues (6%) and substance use problems (3%). The EAP user profile for these workers was similar to the general sample across all of the other industries on most of the EAP use characteristics except for the very low rate for formal referrals. When starting to use the EAP many of the cases in financial industry reported having clinical level symptoms on standardized measures for anxiety disorder (43% at-risk), depression disorder (29% at-risk), alcohol misuse disorder (12% at-risk) and low work productivity (49% at problem level). Among those cases initially at clinical risk status in the total sample, most had recovered at 30 days after completing treatment. The hours lost work productivity per problem case per month changed from 62 hours lost per month to 24 hours. The hours of restored work productivity was estimated to be a $2,760 value per month per case who initially had this problem. Most of the outcome improvement results were also found at similar levels for cases in other industries. 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 is also presented to provide a larger context for this industry.