EAWS offers a full compliment of products and services, including:

• Employee assistance programs (EAP)

• Workplace assistance services

• Work | Life Benefits

• Managed behavioral health and human services

• Critical incident response plans

• Pre-employment behavioral testing, and

• Behavioral risk management.

An Employee Assistance Program (EAP) is an employer sponsored program that offers confidential and professional counseling/referral services to employees and their dependents. An EAP is also a resource for managers, supervisors and union representatives who deal with troubled or impaired employees whose job performance is deteriorating.

An effective EAP will:

• Improve attendance, safe practices, work performance and productivity.
• Reduce turnover, compensation claims, and health care utilization costs.
• Motivate employees to work harder for an employer who is willing to help them deal with personal problems.
• Encourage troubled employees to seek help before work, productivity or safety problems occur.
• Prevent supervisors from getting over involved in an employee's personal difficulties.
• Identify and help impaired employees who are unfit or unsafe to perform their duties due to chemical or behavioral impairment.
• Mitigate time consuming disciplinary actions and grievances.
• Offer "reasonable accommodation" by giving troubled employees the opportunity for professional assistance prior to termination.
• Provide employees and family members easy access to professional and confidential help.
• Promote an organizational image of being progressive and sincerely concerned about the well being of employees and their families.

Our EAP services include toll-free, 24 hour telephone access to a counselor. We make assessments and referrals. When indicated, employees are referred for short-term counseling within the EAP. EAWS can assist not only with mental health issues, but also with parenting and family concerns, childcare and eldercare referrals, addiction disorders, and personal and workplace issues. We also offer specialized non-clinical services, including credit counseling, career assessment, and legal consultation

EAWS provides a range of Workplace Assistance Services to its clients designed to help supervisors overcome performance problems with their staff, assist employees in coping with any type of behavioral crisis at work, and promote emotional wellness at work. Workplace Assistance Services include:

• Supervisory Consultation - supervisors at client companies can call EAWS to speak with a counselor who will help them define problem behaviors, discuss how to confront the employee and help develop an action plan which may include a referral to the EAP.
• Supervisory Referral Training - supervisors are trained to identify employees at risk based upon declining job performance criteria. The training will help supervisors develop the interpersonal skills and techniques needed to confront employees, give performance feedback, and direct employees to the EAP as appropriate.
• Organizational Consultation - EAWS can support the human resource development efforts of its client companies with customized consulting services in response to specific behavioral or organizational health issues at work. Examples include refining a substance abuse policy to be more effective, conducting an occupational stress inventory, or helping supervisors adapt to "employee empowerment."
• Critical Incident Debriefing - Any unexpected, dramatic event at work can leave a profound aftershock for affected employees. In the wake of a critical incident, our Team Coordinator moves quickly to activate our team and schedule an intervention before employees experience the negative impact of un-addressed trauma. By utilizing our EAP Critical Incident Team, you are mitigating the effects of impaired morale and reinforcing your image as caring and resilient
• Fitness-for-Duty - Disturbed workers who threaten the well-being of a student or co-worker and employees reporting to work "under-the-influence" may benefit from a clinical evaluation prior to returning to duty. Our EAP can help you develop a plan to identify and refer employees who may be "unfit" to work due to chemical or psychiatric impairment.
• Specialized Workshops - EAWS staff can provide workshops on a wide range of emotional and behavioral health-related topics that can be presented at any of your locations. Examples include Occupational Stress Management, Aggression in the Workplace and Team Building.

By partnering with Work | Life Benefits, one of the industry's most comprehensive consultation and referral services, Chestnut is able to provide additional benefits to EAP customers. Work | Life Benefits can be integrated into existing EAP programs or purchased as separate package. The Work | Life database is continually updated via direct daily contact with state licensing agencies, providers, and family, childcare and community organizations. A comprehensive list of referrals and hand-selected resource materials from a vast library of books, pamphlets, audiocassettes and videotapes is made available simply by accessing the EAP service.

Managed behavioral health and human services is a professional approach to the successful resolution of mental health, substance abuse and family/social problems through easy access to care, appropriate treatment plans and managed results. These services provide a coordinated system where service delivery intersects with service reimbursements. This system measures performance and manages human services quality, utilization and costs.

Employee Development Associates' Managed Behavioral Health and Human Services include:

• 24-Hour Single Point Access
• Information Systems and Reporting
• Utilization Management
• Provider Network Development and Relations
• Claims Administration
• Outcome Evaluation
• Member/Customer Relations
• Quality Improvement

Critical Incident Response Plans
Crisis in the workplace can take many forms: accidents, violence, sickness and suicide, downsizing and closures. The profound effect on the employees is too frequently overlooked in the aftermath of a critical incident. Employees exposed to a traumatic event may exhibit a range of reactions including, numbness, depression, social withdrawal, fearfulness, guilt, sleep disturbances, appetite problems, irritability, disbelief, family problems, substance abuse, medical ailments, and extreme sensitivity to sounds, sights and smells. Company preparedness for critical events can reduce loss of productivity, reduce further injury to personnel and stimulate more rapid recovery.

In the wake of a critical incident, our Critical Incident Response Team Coordinator moves quickly to activate our team and schedule an intervention before employees experience the negative impact of un-addressed trauma. By utilizing our EAP Critical Incident Team, you are mitigating the effects of impaired morale and reinforcing your image as caring and resilient.
With on-site mobilization of our team guaranteed within 24-72 hours of the incident, we will:

• Establish a structure to provide support and education to affected employees.
• Soften the impact of the incident and accelerate recovery.
• Add to your organization's sense of control by restoring confidence that management cares.
• Reduce the potential for impaired employee performance, litigation and psychiatric disability.

Pre-employment behavioral testing provides employers with a tool that helps identify potential behavioral risk problems with employees. Results offer insight into coping patterns, personality factors, chemical dependency risks and interpersonal skills of employees. This insight helps employers avoid issues such as hiring someone who prefers isolation in a team-based work setting, or placing someone with poor stress-management skills in a high-risk environment.

Behavioral risk management
EAWS's behavioral risk management services include supervisory training and consultation, such as EAP referral training and troubled employee consultation. Work fitness management is another service offering and includes DOT compliant substance abuse professionals, fitness for duty evaluation, positive drug test evaluation, threat assessment, and high-risk case management.