Taking a Stand: One EAP’s Journey to Anti-Racism, Cultural Relevance & Bridge Building

Abstract

In November 2018, I joined the Washington State EAP as its Clinical Services Manager, with responsibilities for developing and managing the quality of our contracted EAP provider network. The network was comprised of licensed mental health professionals, most of whom worked in private practice. Early on I recognized the lack of racial diversity of this network and considered that our network demographics likely did not fully represent the demographics of our workforce, as just 12% of our contracted providers identified as non-white. I wanted our services to be inclusive, representative and accessible to everyone and looked to target at least 25% representation with Black, Indigenous, People of Color (BIPOC) / multi-cultural, multi-faceted providers within a year. I believed this goal was achievable since I had successfully built an EAP provider network in the Asia Pacific (APAC) region encompassing 18 countries. I also vowed to learn more about our current providers as individuals, review their practice specialties and build a strong working relationship with them.