EASNA was founded in 1985 as a response to the changing face of EAPs and the need for an organization that met both Canadian and American professional development needs. The organization’s goal was defined "to provide a leadership role in the encouragement of quality EAP services through the development of Program Standards and an Accreditation process." In 2007 EASNA changed its focus to encourage more organizational members, while continuing to welcome individual members. Organizational members pay one fee but all of their employees may have access to the Members Only website. Programs and events are now developed with this structure in mind, as is this (2009) strategic plan. The last strategic plan was completed in 2004 for the 2005-2008 time period.

This is a presentation given in Montreal, Canada in 2005 to the International Conference for Advancement of Private Practice of Clinical Social Work on the topic of Ethical Concerns in the field and how Managed Care came into existence and how it has impacted the Behavioral Health field.

As key members of an adolescent’s healthcare team, practitioners in the fields of nursing, social work, medicine, and interprofessional care have an obligation to help prevent and reduce substance use and identify mental health risks with their young patients. Asking about substance use and discussing its impact can prevent many harmful effects to the adolescent’s developing brain and potential future. Asking about mental health and identifying risk early can prevent delay of receiving services and supports. Current and future generations of healthcare professionals need to learn the skills to have these essential conversations with adolescents and young adults about substance use and mental health. The Adolescent SBIRT Trainer’s Guide is designed to assist in the dissemination of an adolescent SBIRT training by providing trainers and educators with minute-by-minute instructions for delivering training using the Adolescent SBIRT Slide Deck and the Adolescent SBIRT Learner’s Guide.

The World Economic Forum publishes an annual report on disparities around gender at work titled The Global Gender Gap Report. Its findings from 2022 are quite disturbing. Gender parity is not recovering; it’s getting worse. According to the report, it will take another 132 years to close the gender gap globally. Workforce outcomes for women run the risk of backsliding even further. This is a real crisis. You might ask yourself, “How can this be?” Haven’t we made progress in this area? Why are we going backward? Sadly, women’s representation in the corporate world hasn’t improved much over the past few years. Many companies report being highly committed to gender diversity, but that commitment is not translated into meaningful progress. Not only does this hurt women, but it also impacts the company’s bottom line. Many studies suggest that more women at the top reflect better bottom-line financial results. McKinsey research has consistently found that companies in the top quartile for women on executive teams were more likely to have above-average profitability. It’s one of the top findings of McKinsey’s report they co-created with LeanIn.Org. To offer a grimmer picture, the recent Women in the Workplace report analyzed pipeline and HR data from 279 companies in North America and more than 13 million workers. They noted some glaring facts about the state of women: ● Men hold 62% of manager positions to women’s 38% ● Women are less likely to have access to senior leaders ● Women are twice as likely to be mistaken for more junior employees and more likely to deal with discrimination ● 35% of women have experienced sexual harassment at work ● Unlike popular opinion, women negotiate for raises and promotions as often as men

This is the stage we’ve reached, where figures relating to the mental health of the UK workforce are shocking but also unsurprising. The two factors that lead to the greatest stress among people are uncertainty and lack of control. And that’s what we have plenty of. Energy prices and the cost-of-living crisis. What’s happening with the war in Ukraine. Political instability. Worries about recession and jobs. The growth in the use of EAPs highlighted in this report comes with at least one element of good news to it. It means many more employers have been taking employee health and well-being more seriously; and, that more employees have been willing to make use of an EAP, that there’s trust in service providers. Most worrying about the EAPA UK figures is the number of employees with severe depression, in crisis situations, turning to their EAP. It’s critical that the Government, the NHS and other healthcare stakeholders, understand the role the EAP industry has been playing in supporting mental health, providing immediate access to counselling and professional assessment for millions of people every year. So not a matter of an employee benefit affecting the few, but a significant role in dealing with an urgent and long- term issue for society. Given the limitations to NHS resources and both the scale and complexity of dealing with people’s mental wellbeing, more thought and discussion is needed around the place of EAPs — including how else they can help. Maybe there’s a need for extensions to EAP services, to ensure there’s provision for longer-term counselling programmes through to recovery. The EAP sector has coped this far with the giant swell of demand and more serious cases, through training and recruitment initiatives, more online services and apps. But neither employers nor the UK as a whole can afford to see EAPs become overwhelmed.

The International Employee Assistance Digital Archive, housed at the University of Maryland, Baltimore, School of Social Work, Health Sciences and Human Services Library is celebrating its 10 year anniversary in 2023. This open-access, free, global repository has become a cornerstone for the EA and broader behavioral health fields. This article provides the history of the Archive and how it has grown to over 190,000 downloads from 10+ countries. Read about this important resource for the field and how to get involved in continuing to grow and promote the Archive and the EA field.

One silver lining of the pandemic has been the growing acceptance of mental health care by the public. Thanks to COVID, this national health crisis was forced into the spotlight as heightened anxiety, social isolation, provider shortages, and other pressures overburdened a system that was already struggling. Fortunately, these concerns resulted in action. On the public side, the federal government introduced a sweeping plan for behavioral health care to the tune of $51.7B over 10 years. In addition, states like Massachusetts are now funding programs to divert emergency room visitors with mental health issues to community mental health centers. On the private side, the focus on workplace mental health has been dramatically sharpened. Employee Assistance Programs (EAPs) are being bolstered significantly while new telehealth players are rushing in to exploit the growing market demand. (Mostly venture-backed, these splashy new mental health players raised over $6B in VC funds during the pandemic alone.) While EAPs and health plans have long been central to workplace mental health, these digital disruptors are adding a third access point.

Remote and hybrid work have become highly desired workplace perks, with plenty of research showing their advantages. In fact, employees who work remotely often say they're happier, more productive and more likely to stay with their employer. But new research shows there's at least one drawback to these arrangements: Remote and hybrid workers tend to experience higher rates of mental health issues. Fully remote (40 percent) and hybrid work (38 percent) are associated with an increased likelihood of anxiety and depression symptoms compared to in-person work (35 percent), according to an analysis by the Integrated Benefits Institute (IBI), an Oakland, Calif.-based nonprofit research organization. For its report, IBI analyzed data from the Household Pulse Survey, an online resource created by the U.S. Census Bureau to determine how households were impacted by the pandemic. IBI partnered with Elevance Health (formerly Anthem) to analyze claims data related to mental health. Although there isn't a massive disparity between in-person and remote workers' likelihood of depression and anxiety, it's an important difference that employers would be wise to pay attention to, researchers said. "The differences in prevalence of anxiety and depression symptoms between hybrid, remote and onsite are statistically significant. Our research illustrates that remote work may not be the ideal solution for every employee," said Candace Nelson, director of research at IBI, adding that more exploration of the topic is needed.

The purpose of this brief article is to document a significant series of events in the field of Employee Assistance. The intent is to recount, from collective memory, just how the EASNA accreditation process and standards, evolved.

This Employee Assistance Professionals Association (EAPA) Code of Ethics provides guidance regarding ethical conduct for employee assistance professionals (hereafter, EA professionals), and it defines the standards of ethical behavior for the benefit of their clients, both individual employees and employer organizations. This code will apply to the EA professional’s activities and relationships with employees, employers, unions, employee assistance colleagues, professionals from other disciplines, the local community and society as a whole.