EAP or PSP - Which is Best to Support the Mental Wellness of your Employees?
Short answer: Both.
Although Employee Assistance Programs (EAPs) are quite prevalent, Peer Support Programs (PSPs) are less known and utilized by organizations.
What are PSPs?
A PSP is a confidential, volunteer, non-clinical, mental health support that leverages the wisdom that comes from lived experience. Peer support is designed to be a complement to traditional clinical care programs and not to replace them. Social support from a person with lived experience can inspire hope and empower others in similar situations.
Within a workplace peer support program, the peers and peer supporters also have the organization in which they are employed as common ground.
Mental health peer support is grounded in hopeful recovery and self-determination. It is valued for its authenticity because the peer supporter has also lived through a similar experience and has found their way to recovery. Peer relationships are built around a deep mutual understanding and trust, and are not built on the basis of power differentials such as those found within a patient-doctor relationship.
The peer supporters provide support by:
Providing social and emotional support
Empowering the peer
Helping with resource navigation and coordination
Being empathetic, based on shared lived experience
Recognizing everyone’s recovery journey is different
Sharing their story when appropriate
Helping with recovery through a dialogue
Maintaining confidentiality
A PSP is not:
Therapy
Acting on behalf of the peer
Clinical support or treatment
Being an advocate or giving advice
What are EAPs?
EAPs are professional services to support different life challenges for physical, emotional, financial, and family-related issues.
To support mental wellness or address current mental health issues, EAP programs provide support by:
Offering short term counselling (4-6 sessions) by a registered mental health professional, separate from the workplace
Maintaining confidentiality
They do not:
Prescribe medications
Provide long term counselling and support
Work directly in your organization
How can EAPs and PSPs work together?
It is time to stop pitting EAPs and PSPs against one another and, instead, consider the more helpful alternative that both are part of a holistic response towards developing a culture of well-being in organizations.
Peer support is becoming more popular with employers as it allows employees to engage in conversations early and helps to prevent small problems from getting bigger. Typically, by the time someone calls their EAP and is able to get an appointment, the situation has worsened. ii When a PSP is in place, EAP is often called upon earlier in the process and as a complementary support, which can resolve situations more effectively.
Not everyone is going to seek assistance from the EAP. Oftentimes, it is a last resort option for many employees. This is why, unless the service is well publicized within the organization, EAPs do not see a high level of utilization on their own.
PSPs have been shown to lead to increased EAP utilization as this is a resource the peer supporter can suggest. While EAP utilization may increase when adopting a Peer Support Program, in turn, absenteeism and disability incidence may be reduced, and productivity may be increased. In fact, when organizations commit to putting in place multiple targeted approaches to creating a mentally healthy workplace, they can expect a significant positive return on investment (ROI).
Another way that PSPs and EAPs can work together is through enabling a culture shift. PSPs have been known to increase employee engagement, decrease workplace stigma surrounding mental health challenges, and increase overall access to care given the shift in mindset they create. When an organization recognizes the lived experience (LE) of their people as an asset, rather than a liability, by selecting and training those who have LE and positioning them front and center in the organization as a valuable resource for their colleagues, this is when real change can happen.
Peer support is the key missing wellness program in many organizations. It is expected that more and more organizations will see the benefit of adding such programs to their wellness offering. PSPs are now becoming a key differentiator for employers looking to build a forward-looking reputation and a culture where humans are accepted in all of their states of being.
Note: When developing a workplace PSP, it is critical to provide the right level of training and rigorous program frameworks and policies as volunteer peer supporters will be entrusted with the wellness of their peers / colleagues. For more information on workplace PSPs, click here.
Read about how research shows the clear benefits of having a peer support program in the workplace.
About the Authors:
Renée is an experienced pension and benefits consultant, with over 25 years in the industry. She's an Associate, Human Capital Innovator at MHI, she specializes in developing wellness strategies for organizations, with a primary focus on mental health. Renée is also the author of “Who is going to pay for this?”, a book that outlines the urgency of addressing employee wellness in an innovative way that will be profitable to the organization and its employees.
Mary is a Certified Human Resources Leader (CHRL) and ICF Certified Resiliency Coach with a passion for innovation, impactful leadership and workplaces that explode with the power of engaged employees and stakeholders. Her more than 25 years of varied human resources and business experience drives her desire to foster workplace cultures of trust, collaboration, celebration and change. She is well known for her fast tempo, direct communication and bringing out the best in people. She is a skilled communicator, solutions finder and focused business and human resources strategist.