Understanding Anxiety, Work and the Impact of Mental Health Counseling and Coaching in 20,725 Employee Assistance Program Clients in United States: CuraLinc Healthcare 2022-2023.
| dc.contributor.author | Attridge, Mark | |
| dc.contributor.author | Pawlowski, David | |
| dc.date.accessioned | 2024-01-03T16:16:18Z | |
| dc.date.available | 2024-01-03T16:16:18Z | |
| dc.date.issued | 2023-07 | |
| dc.identifier.citation | Attridge, M., & Pawlowski, D. (2023). Understanding anxiety, work and the impact of mental health counseling and coaching in 20,725 employee assistance program clients in United States: CuraLinc Healthcare 2022-2023. International Journal of Scientific and Research Publications, 13(7), 358-383. | en_US |
| dc.identifier.uri | http://hdl.handle.net/10713/21256 | |
| dc.description | This project provided real-world conditions with a national sample that allowed us to empirically investigate the role of anxiety among employee assistance program (EAP) users. This study is based on 20,725 clients who used a national EAP service during parts of 2022 and 2023 for mental health counseling (96%) or coaching (4%). All clients had completed a standardized measure for anxiety risk (GAD-2), depression disorder (PHQ-2), the extent of hazardous alcohol use (AUDIT-C), and two aspects of employee work performance (WOS absenteeism and presenteeism). The primary finding was 42% of EAP clients had a clinical level of anxiety symptoms at the start of use. This is about four times higher than the typical working adult in the United States. In addition, 30% had a clinical level of depression, and there was substantial comorbidity between anxiety and depression (r = .54). Only 13% of clients had alcohol misuse as a clinical problem and it had little overlap with anxiety (r = .10). Thus, anxiety is one of the most common psychiatric disorders among users of counseling and coaching services. Only 14% of clients contacted the EAP specifically for assistance with an anxiety related issue. Thus, three times as many clients were at risk for clinical anxiety than were interested in anxiety as their primary treatment goal. The background profile analyses revealed few meaningful associations between anxiety severity and factors of client age or gender, employer factors or aspects of EAP service use. Greater anxiety, however, was associated with greater work absenteeism (r = .16) and work presenteeism (r = .25). Clients at risk for anxiety had about three times the number of hours of lost work productivity in the past month before starting EAP use than the typical employee non-user of EAP (72 hours vs. 27 hours, respectively). Longitudinal results (n = 772) determined that EAP use was significantly associated with a 64% reduction in the severity of anxiety symptoms for the average client (r = .56). A reduction in anxiety symptoms was significantly correlated with a reduction in hours of lost work productivity (r = .40). Among the subsample of longitudinal clients who started out at clinical risk for anxiety (n = 287), the average case reduced their level of anxiety severity by 69% (r = .83). Also, a reliable change index analysis indicated that 88% of the clients initially at risk for anxiety had a clinically meaningful improvement in their symptoms and that 82% recovered to no longer be at risk after EAP use. The study findings replicate other research and provide a descriptive profile of anxiety in workers based on a large national sample. | en_US |
| dc.description.sponsorship | CuralInc Healthcare | en_US |
| dc.description.uri | https://www.ijsrp.org/research-paper-0723.php?rp=P13912985 | en_US |
| dc.language.iso | en_US | en_US |
| dc.relation.ispartof | International Journal of Scientific and Research Publications | en_US |
| dc.subject | EAP | en_US |
| dc.subject.lcsh | Employee assistance programs | en_US |
| dc.subject.mesh | Counseling | en_US |
| dc.subject.mesh | Mentoring | en_US |
| dc.subject.mesh | Anxiety | en_US |
| dc.subject.mesh | Depression | en_US |
| dc.subject.mesh | Work-Life Balance | en_US |
| dc.subject.mesh | Occupational Stress | en_US |
| dc.subject.mesh | Presenteeism | en_US |
| dc.subject.mesh | Absenteeism | en_US |
| dc.subject.mesh | Patient Health Questionnaire | en_US |
| dc.subject.mesh | Alcohol Drinking | en_US |
| dc.title | Understanding Anxiety, Work and the Impact of Mental Health Counseling and Coaching in 20,725 Employee Assistance Program Clients in United States: CuraLinc Healthcare 2022-2023. | en_US |
| dc.type | Article | en_US |
| dc.identifier.ispublished | No | en_US |
| refterms.dateFOA | 2024-01-03T16:16:20Z |
Files in this item
Name:
ijsrp-2023_July Attridge & ...
Size:
1.826Mb
Format:
PDF
Description:
PDF of full-text study open access