Employee Assistance Programs and the Troubled Employee in the Public Sector Workplace

Abstract

This article provides an overview of public sector Employee Assistance Programs (EAPs) and identifies issues to which public sector managers should be sensitive EAPs can assist troubled employees and their supervisors and reduce health care costs related to the behavior of troubled employees and their families The continued escalation of health care costs will motivate many employers to turn to EAPs as part of their health care cost containment efforts However, there are many barriers to EAP effectiveness, and measuring EAP success is difficult To he effective, public sector EAP administra tors must be sensitive to the unique characteristics of the public sector workplace and the changing nature of the government workforce, and must have access to the or gani zation's personnel system