Exploring the New Employee Assistance Program

Life's a Beach | "Employee Assistance Program" (Episode 09)

Estimated read time: 1:20

Summary

In this episode of "Life's a Beach," host Miranda welcomes Suzanne Fulwood from Optima EAP to introduce the new Employee Assistance Program for Optima. Starting January 1, 2023, this program provides employees and their household members with resources to tackle life's challenges, offering five visits per topic for various issues like grief, stress, and dependency. The episode explores how employees can access these services easily by calling a hotline, overcoming stigma, and ensuring confidentiality. Miranda and Suzanne discuss the program's scope, accessibility, and the wide array of services that extend beyond clinical consultations to include training and crisis management. Ultimately, the podcast emphasizes the importance of seeking help and making full use of the comprehensive benefits provided by the Optima EAP.

Highlights

Optima EAP provides five free sessions per topic for employees and their households. 🎟️
The program helps navigate challenges like stress, grief, and relationship building. 📚
Easy access through a hotline makes getting help a breeze, eliminating long waits. 🚀
The stigma around seeking help is tackled head-on, promoting emotional maturity. 🌱
Confidentiality assured — your privacy is protected by law. 🔒
Variety of assistance options: in-person, virtual, or via phone — your choice! 📱
Optima is locally based, ensuring relatable and accessible support. 🌍
Beyond counseling: Optima offers training, crisis intervention, and legal/financial advice. 🧠

Key Takeaways

Optima EAP offers extensive support beyond just counseling — think training, crisis management, and even work-life services! 🌟
Five free sessions per topic mean you never have to battle life's challenges alone. Bring on the resilience! 💪
Stigma? There's none here! Reaching out for help is all about emotional maturity, and Optima EAP makes it easy. 🌈
Confidentiality is key — your journey with EAP is private and just for you. 🔐
Appointments are super accessible — just a call away, with options for face-to-face, virtual, and telephonic sessions. 📞
Optima EAP is all about community and connection, offering local resources and understanding. 🤝

Overview

In "Life's a Beach" episode nine, host Miranda dives into Optima's new Employee Assistance Program (EAP) with guest Suzanne Fulwood. Kicking off in January 2023, this program provides a lifeline for employees and their household members to overcome everyday obstacles, offering five complimentary sessions per specific issue. Suzanne explains how easy it is to access these services just by dialing a number, with options for virtual, telephonic, or face-to-face consultations.

Suzanne and Miranda chat about the significance of debunking the stigma surrounding seeking mental and emotional assistance, underlining that tapping into EAP services is a sign of strength rather than weakness. They delve into concerns about confidentiality, assuring listeners that all interactions are protected by state and federal privacy laws.

The podcast wraps up exploring Optima EAP's well-rounded approach, which includes not only counseling but also valuable training sessions, crisis intervention, and work-life resources. Suzanne emphasizes the program’s local presence, offering personalized support that truly understands community needs, ensuring employees get the most out of their benefits.

Chapters

00:00 - 00:30: Introduction to Life's A Beach Podcast The introduction to the 'Life's A Beach' podcast welcomes listeners with soothing music, setting the tone for a discussion on mental and emotional health. Hosted by Miranda, this episode introduces the new Optima Employee Assistance Program (EAP). As of January 1, 2023, Optima EAP is the new provider, and the host expresses enthusiasm about exploring the services and benefits it offers.
00:30 - 01:00: Introduction of Optima EAP The chapter introduces the topic of Optima EAP, focusing on what it is and how to access it. Suzanne Fulwood from Optima EAP is welcomed to provide an overview of the program, setting the stage for a discussion about Employee Assistance Programs. Suzanne introduces herself as the client executive for the Optima EAP program in the eastern part of the state and expresses gratitude for the opportunity to discuss the services.
01:00 - 02:30: Overview and Accessing EAP Services The chapter provides an introduction to Employee Assistance Programs (EAP) and their importance. Suzanne explains that EAPs are resources designed to help employees tackle life's challenges. She likens the unpredictability of these challenges to playing 'whack-a-mole' - dealing with one issue only for another to arise. The chapter underscores the value of recognizing the need for help and understanding how to access and utilize EAP services, highlighting this as a sign of emotional maturity.
02:30 - 05:00: Overcoming Stigmas and Misconceptions The chapter titled 'Overcoming Stigmas and Misconceptions' discusses the availability and benefits of the Employee Assistance Program (EAP) for employees and their household members. The EAP offers five visits per topic with clinicians, covering issues such as anger, stress, dependency, grief, loss, and building relationships. The chapter emphasizes that these services are designed to assist with everyday challenges and are not limited to work-related issues, highlighting the importance and accessibility of mental health support.
05:00 - 08:00: Accessibility and Quality of Care The chapter discusses the Employee Assistance Program (EAP) eligibility for employees and those living in their household. It clarifies that anyone residing at the employee's permanent address qualifies, including roommates and those temporarily away, such as college students who use the home address as their mailing address.
08:00 - 12:30: Understanding and Using EAP Benefits This chapter covers how employees or their household members can access Employee Assistance Program (EAP) services. It explains that accessing these services is straightforward: one just needs to call a 1-800 number. Calls are answered promptly, within 60 to 90 seconds. The operations team will then help to set up an appointment for the employee. If the employee is flexible, an appointment can often be arranged within 72 hours. However, if the employee has specific scheduling requirements, this may extend the time needed to arrange the appointment.
12:30 - 15:30: Additional Resources and Manager Tools The chapter discusses the challenges and negative perceptions some employees may have about seeking help through Employee Assistance Programs (EAP). It highlights that individuals might delay or avoid using these services due to the stigma or misconception that they are only for those who are mandated or strongly encouraged by their managers to do so. The chapter emphasizes understanding these perceptions and working to mitigate them, to ensure employees feel comfortable reaching out for assistance.
15:30 - 19:00: Coordination of Care and Long-term Solutions The chapter discusses the coordination of care and the importance of long-term solutions in mental health services, specifically focusing on Employee Assistance Programs (EAP). A major barrier to accessing these services is the stigma attached to seeking mental health support, which can prevent individuals from getting the help they need. The chapter highlights common misperceptions associated with EAP, focusing particularly on the reluctance to seek help due to stigma. It emphasizes that when individuals face challenges, turning to friends and family may not always provide the necessary support, as they may not know the right things to say and might only offer temporary comfort rather than effective solutions.
19:00 - 21:00: Optima EAP's Role in Critical Incidents The chapter discusses the role of Optima EAP in handling critical incidents, emphasizing the importance of breaking the stigma associated with seeking mental health help. A clinician's role includes encouraging individuals to come forward and talk about their issues, highlighting the need for emotional maturity to recognize when help is needed. Another significant point is the assurance of confidentiality, with concerns addressed regarding privacy and the sharing of personal information. It is clarified that EAP services are governed by strict state and federal laws ensuring that personal information remains private.
21:00 - 25:30: Encouragement and Contact Information This chapter discusses the importance of self-disclosure for personal and professional growth. It emphasizes that individuals have control over sharing their stories and highlights the misconceptions about EAP (Employee Assistance Program). It explains that EAP is not just about clinical services but also includes training, information sharing, and support for stress management and critical incidents. The chapter aims to raise awareness about the broad scope and benefits of EAP.

Life's a Beach | "Employee Assistance Program" (Episode 09) Transcription

00:00 - 00:30 [Music] welcome back to Life's A Beach mental and emotional health podcast my name is Miranda and I'm your host today we'll be discussing our employee assistance program as of January 1st 2023 Optima employee assistance program or Optima EAP for short is our new program provider and we are excited to learn all
00:30 - 01:00 about their services today we'll talk about what it is how to access it I'm excited to be joined today by Suzanne fulwood with Optima EAP she's here to provide an overview of the program and we're going to get into a little discussion about Employee Assistance programs Suzanne if you want to go ahead and introduce yourself to our viewers thank you Miranda again my name is Suzanne fulwood and I am the client executive for the Optima EAP program on the eastern part of the state we're excited and we thank you for this opportunity
01:00 - 01:30 welcome Suzanne to get started today can you share with our viewers just a brief overview of what an employee assist distance program is and what kind of services does it offer sure the EAP program is a resource that helps employees to overcome some of life's challenges the analogy that I always use is the guacamole you get one thing down something else crops up and it's constant and we want the employees to know that they're not alone and it shows a side of emotional maturity to be able to recognize when you need the help where you get the help and how to get it
01:30 - 02:00 so that's why the EAP program is here so it sounds like employees and members of their household can access EAP services for the everyday things that we all go through can you tell me what exactly are the services when they reach out what is available to them okay so for the employees they get five visits per topic pretty much you can talk to our clinicians about a lot of things but for things like anger and stress dependency grief and loss building relationships things like that it's not only for the
02:00 - 02:30 employees for the employee and everybody in their household but let me clarify that when you say that we mean that that if the employee has people in their household that have their addresses the permanent address then they qualify for the EAP program okay so anybody living with you they don't have to be actually like family members it could be like a roommate correct um or what about when I was away at College I used my home addresses my mailing address so that would be even though I'm not living there right I'm still a member of that household correct
02:30 - 03:00 so how would an employee or a member of their household go about accessing these Services what should they do it's as simple as calling the 1-800 number Miranda once they make the call the calls are usually answer within 60 to 90 seconds and then the operations team member would actually set up the appointment for the employee usually if they will take the first available you can get in probably within 72 hours however if you start putting criteria and specifics with it like your schedule
03:00 - 03:30 doesn't work or something like that it may take a little while longer but we will get you in when you put it like that it sounds like such an easy easy process right yes but we do know that oftentimes people do delay getting help or may not end up getting help because of a negative perception on what it means to seek out that help you know in their mind EAP services are just or somebody who has been mandated to go by their manager or maybe you know strongly encouraged depending on what they're going through to reach out for that help
03:30 - 04:00 so overcoming that negative perception that stigma on seeking out Mental Health Services in general but specifically for EAP can be a big barrier to getting EAP services what are some other misperceptions that you've come across well the biggest one you said Miranda was the stigma you know a lot of people don't want to go and get the help that they need like I tell people all the time A lot of times when we are going through things we go to our friends and our family members and what do they do because they don't know what to say they pacify us whereas if you go
04:00 - 04:30 to a clinician they may say you know what Miss Floyd let's get you in and let's talk the stigma is the biggest thing and that's part of my role when I'm out talking to my groups is to try to let them know that it's okay again it's a level of emotional maturity to recognize when something is going on the second thing is confidentiality a lot of people are concerned they'll say Miss fullwood I am not going to EAP because you know my business will be strong all over the place right when we're governed by state and federal laws and we cannot share your information my mother used to
04:30 - 05:00 say the only way that your business can be told is if you tell it you don't have to worry about us and then the third thing is just not really understanding what EAP is right I admit those three letters together EAP may not mean too much that's my responsibility to make people make people aware of what it is and the thing is too Miranda is that people just think that EAP is about clinical it is so much more we have clinical we have training we have information for critical incidence Stress Management types events we have
05:00 - 05:30 all types of services we have a new work life service and we'll talk about that later but again a lot of people think that EAP is just for clinical and it's not that's right so that's why we wanted to have you on our show today we wanted to kind of unpack the EAP program and you know really address some of the concerns that our employees might have with reaching out you know I'm glad you mentioned confidentiality we don't know when employees reach out it's not gonna get back to your boss so that confidentiality is a great comfort I
05:30 - 06:00 know for some reaching out and I know you also mentioned accessibility in as far as you know how soon it will take to get an appointment those are some common things that I noticed amongst what you said was accessibility how will my care be coordinated if I need more assistance than what is offered and then you know what is the quality of my care who will I be speaking with and how will my call be handled so I hope we can touch on each one of those topics on our episode today sure and let's go ahead and unpack
06:00 - 06:30 that a little bit starting out with accessibility so you mentioned the turnaround time for receiving an appointment once an employee calls so how does that work does the employer receive like a list of providers that they'll need to contact or they just connected with a how does that process work okay so again you call the 1-800 number and our operations team will actually set the first appointment for you oh okay yes ma'am and so you know the thing is is that it usually
06:30 - 07:00 takes from the time the phone rings to the time that the custom the operations team answers the phone is like 60 to 90 seconds all right as far as the visits are concerned we try to get everybody in within the first 72 hours but again keeping in mind that if you take the first appointment that is available you'll probably get it in within that 72 hours but again once you start looking at certain criteria the time that you know you can't come in before 4 or 5 30 because you know our visits are eight Monday through Friday from eight to five okay and then we have after hours but
07:00 - 07:30 getting sometimes people's schedules they don't get off until five o'clock so that could possibly extend the time out that you could get an appointment okay yeah I know in the past that turnaround time has been a major concern for our employees you know getting over that maybe the anxiety of reaching out that delay between that initial call and then when you can actually speak with somebody can really turn some people off to receiving that help so that's good to know that you know it depending on your availability you possibly could be seen
07:30 - 08:00 up to 72 hours from that initial call which is not long at all so you mentioned Monday to Friday between the hours of eight and five are the those are the clinicians hours or is that also the call center hours well it's the call center hours and the clinician's hours however we tell people that or the employees rather that if they get into a crisis mode after hours we still want them to call the 1-800 number and then they would be connected with our after hours nurses and then they are qualified for EAP type visits also and then if you
08:00 - 08:30 still need additional help we do have our clinicians that are on duty 24 hours a day so the only thing that we really can't handle Miranda are the suicide calls our operations team is trained to pick up on certain connotations in the voice certain things that it said they're trained for that and they'll ask the employee are you in a crisis mode if they are in a crisis mode then they'll be warm transferred immediately to a clinician so you know the thing is is that the training is important right the training is important because you have
08:30 - 09:00 to know your clients even though you don't know them you have to be able to pick up on signs through the phone absolutely so when calling the after hours um you know if you're in crisis mode it sounds like you can get connected with somebody immediately if I were calling after work let's say to set up an appointment with a counselor would I be able to do that on that phone call or how would that call be handled well what they would do is they would go ahead and do an assessment of the call and then they would send us an email that may be an employee needs to be set up with an
09:00 - 09:30 appointment so it can still work that way so that appointment would happen maybe the next business day when that email is received okay if this is the crisis unless it's a crisis is there anything Suzanne that Optima EAP does that makes their services more accessible to members oh yes we're able to do visits face to face we just started that back January 11th I think it was because of covet oh wow and we do it virtually you can do it telephonically or you can do it from your iPad so that you know we give the
09:30 - 10:00 employees a lot of options because you can go into a conference room a car wherever you can get confidentiality and you can get the internet you're able to do your services that's great that you have the option to be connected with a counselor in a way that maybe you're most comfortable with so maybe somebody's not comfortable over the phone or in a conference room you know they want to meet in person they can do that or if they wanted that virtual appointment so that they don't have to travel they could stay right in their own home and we've seen a lot of
10:00 - 10:30 people you know like the virtual better because I could stay at home and be on the couch with my puppy and have an obsession and not have to go anywhere so I see more and more of that absolutely so I know for me when I'm getting ready to do something that I've never done before you know thinking about from the mindset of somebody calling EAP and they've never done it before what helps me is to gather as much information about the process as possible so recently my son had surgery and the doctor shared a video with us of what to expect and watching that video
10:30 - 11:00 and knowing exactly how things would happen and and they did work out just like that video it definitely helped to calm a lot of my nerves and I had a lot less anxiety about his surgery which went really well by the way but I was thinking that maybe we could walk through some examples of why you might reach out to EAP and walk through what that process would look like I know we've already kind of gone through the process but I feel like that repetition and as much information as possible that we can share with our viewers will be helpful
11:00 - 11:30 for you know in the time that they might need to reach out they'll know exactly what to expect well I'll just use myself as an example about six years ago both of my parents passed away within 30 30 days of each other well 47 days of each other and at that time Miranda I knew that I wasn't thinking straight you know I had a lot on me I had become like a lawyer doctor preacher teacher everything for two extremely ill parents and again at that time I just could have easily called out to EAP because that would have been what we call a volunteer meaning that I volunteered to call
11:30 - 12:00 there's no paperwork and again HR no one knows that you've made the call my manager at the time was well aware of everything that I was going through so she politely came and put a magnet on my desk and she said Suzanne don't forget we have EAP and then last but not least if I were grieving today as I was grieving six years ago then um Sentara will probably do what we call a mandated referral and that's a good thing because we never want anybody to know that a mandated referral is a punishment right it's a win-win situation it's a win-win to get me back on track the way that I need to
12:00 - 12:30 be and it's also a win-win for the organization because at that time I need to be productive for the paychecks that I get every two weeks so again with the voluntary referral I could have easily just called the 1-800 number the operations team are going to ask a few questions you know just so they can figure out what's what organization you're from you know what your preferences are if you have any and then they would set me up with that appointment you'll have we have five visits for you all and so the way that I imagine it Miranda is that the first visit number one and two you're talking to the
12:30 - 13:00 clinician and I'm doing what I call dumping my bucket I'm telling the clinician everything about everything that's going on visit number three I'm starting to feel a lot better you know the clinician at that time may seem as full well let's get you back for two more visits to make sure you're on track because usually statistics states that it takes about three visits to get you back on track I didn't know that yes ma'am all right visit number five you should feel a lot better to fly away and be able to handle and manage that challenge but they're going to be some people that have situations where they're they're just really really deep and five visits may not be enough sure
13:00 - 13:30 at that time you will be turned over to a psychiatrist or a psychologist and that would be against your medical benefits and you would have a co-pay a deductible a co-insurance but then also the clinician that you're working with will help you with that transfer because you want to stay in the network clinicians can be kind of pricey and which is well worth it but to have a co-pay a deductible coinsurance is a lot better sure thank you Suzanne for sharing about your experience we really appreciate you sharing that with us I was curious what are some other examples
13:30 - 14:00 of why an employee or a member of their household might reach out to use EAP services and to seek out those five visits you know a lot of times when I'm out people constantly share with me their experiences with Optima EAP um they go for things like anger you know um just being able to manage day to day with just life's challenges it could be anything from A to Z but I assure you every time they talk to me about it Miranda it gives them a sense of comfort you know the example that I mentioned
14:00 - 14:30 earlier about being able to talk to your friends and your family again they pacify us and I always say that it's a TPA a third party administrator because that's a person who doesn't know you he doesn't know he or she doesn't know the situation and they're able to give you a clinical response so a lot of people find that to be comforting so you mentioned an employee might or a member of their household might reach out to EAP for help um you know managing their anger so I guess in that scenario let's kind of walk through it and you know talk
14:30 - 15:00 through the process just so I make sure I understand this correctly so if I realize that I am struggling with anger and you know I I want to get help as soon as possible with that before you know anything comes out of that before right once I realized that I might need some help with this that would be a good time to call correct um and you know maybe it's not as far along as it could have been um but as soon as you know you might need some help that's a good time to reach out and maybe only one visit is all you need to just talk through about
15:00 - 15:30 what was making you angry so for instance if I was you know identifying that myself I might need some help with this finally take a deep breath and I'm gonna be able to just go ahead and dial that number that's all I have to do once I've decided that you know I might need some help with this I just gotta dial that number and then what would happen when I reach out to the operations team and they pick up that call what are they going to say to me what should I be prepared to say back well of course they're going to ask you your name and
15:30 - 16:00 what organization you're with um they may ask if you are dependent of the employee just so that we can make sure that we have everything and then they may ask you you know did you have someone in mind because a lot of people sometimes already have a clinician that they're working with okay so do I have a counselor in mind that I want to speak with and if so then we could either work to get them into our Network or they may already be in our Network so our operations team will go ahead and try to set up that appointment right and again they set up the first one but it's up to
16:00 - 16:30 the employee to set up the subsequent ones okay so they're going to ask me my name um what organization organization I work with if I'm a member or a household member right and then you know if they if I already have somebody in mind so you know I guess if I had a friend who was going through counseling they highly recommended somebody I could say well I have heard about this right clinician and you have all their contact information and you'll be able to reach out I don't even have to gather that information if we don't have the information we may ask you for the address and contact number again we have
16:30 - 17:00 a lot of clinicians in our network but all of them don't participate with EAP okay for one reason or another but if we can't get that one in the network again we'll try but if not we can surely connect you with another one all right so you'll ask me when I'm able to get that visit in if I have any certain time constraints and then you'll work on your end your magic whatever computer system you use to find out what appointment would work best and in whatever format I was hoping to receive
17:00 - 17:30 in whether that's virtual or in person yeah I've had telephonic or face to face but there's one other thing I want to say too Miranda you know all personalities don't click oh that's true and so if you have a visit with a clinician and your personalities just don't click please let us know as soon as possible because what we need to do is to get you connected with someone else please don't wait until you're at visit number three and then say well we're not getting along let us know at visit number one if you can that's good to know so you don't have to stick with
17:30 - 18:00 that same person so if you have that first visit and you decide uh maybe you know I need to see somebody else do you get five new sessions or does that first session still count as that five that first one still counts that's why we say to let us know as soon as possible because you don't want to wait to get to number four sure for that particular topic and then you only have one left right I do want to talk a little bit more about the quality of care and what kind of qualifications the counselors have before we switch gears into that I did
18:00 - 18:30 want to ask you what sets Optima EAP apart as far as accessibility goes I think I remember you mentioning that you guys are a local company is that true yes we are local and we are here the thing is Miranda is that you know a lot of carriers offer the EAP program but again we're right here in the Virginia Beach office so we have clinicians Statewide and even if there's an employee that has a child that's in college somewhere else like in Montana and they want to use the EAP program we will still just find them a clinician in
18:30 - 19:00 the area but we are here I mean I for me as far as we consider ourselves to be high touch I call my clients every quarter I know what's going on with my clients I'd like to find out things I don't like to hear things out from the community of something that could have potentially gone wrong so again we we have materials that we send out we stay in contact almost weekly I know you and I talk yeah but the thing is is that we are high touch and so we stay in contact with our clients constantly that's great to know
19:00 - 19:30 you guys are local you are a part of our community you understand our community um you know all the way from you guys are local to your operations team are the counselors that are a part of the network are they local as well yes we have some in staff but then we have a lot of Affiliates and our clinicians have to be at a master's level they have to have a current license and I think they have to have at least three years of outpatient type services with with employees so they're they're well
19:30 - 20:00 equipped yeah I was going to ask you about the counselors and their qualifications so some pretty high standards there what about the people on your operations teams those that are answering the phone calls you did mention that they have you know training to be able to assess the callers as they're calling in what kind of training do they undergo I don't know exactly all of the details of it but I do know that they go through a formal training again everybody can't just answer the phone okay you have to have a level of
20:00 - 20:30 accessibility knowing what to listen for you know certain things like I'm just going to use this as an example if somebody's crying and screaming how do you defuse that so that you can at least try to get them the help that they need you have to determine do they need help right now is it a suicide call so again they're trained on certain things to listen for when the customers call all right so they have that specialized training they're not just going to be collecting your information and passing
20:30 - 21:00 that on to somebody they're going to help process you know what you're going through and try and get you connected in the best way possible depending on your situation and one thing that I can say too about our operations team is they have a heart for the people if that's the right terminology to say yeah they care about every call that comes in in fact our whole team has a heart for the people because you know when you're dealing with mental health it's a lot yeah it's a lot and sometimes there's just hearing somebody's voice a calm soothing voice that's what can just
21:00 - 21:30 calm somebody right there that's so true you know I had a friend share with me just that she had reached out to EAP services and that even just that phone call was all she needed she didn't even need to set up an appointment but you know being able to share what was going on right then and there and talking through it just helped so sometimes just having that empathetic person who really does care about what you're going through listening to you helps as well I think that you know is very comforting to me you know personally thinking about
21:30 - 22:00 if there were a time that I need to reach out that you know I'll be able to receive an empathetic ear yes get connected with care and that I will be connected in the best way possible for me all right so we talked a little bit about counselors background and those answering the call in the operations center is there anything else about the quality of care that you'll receive when you reach out to EAP Services what sets up to my EAP apart from other EAP
22:00 - 22:30 providers we have a lot to offer Miranda there's so much more than just the clinical part whereas that's the that's the the Forefront and by clinical you mean like when I reach out and get those five sessions with the counselor and you meet with the with the counselor um again we go back to the training we have 61 classes that can be trained we have an actual training department we have our EAP clinical manager and he does assessments uh the managers out there are able to call him at any time well
22:30 - 23:00 within you know normal hours but if they have a situation that's occurring and they really don't know how to handle it they can call and get what we call a management consult okay at that time the clinical manager will say you know what why don't we try ABC or maybe he may say let's go ahead and get that mandate to our referral in we have critical incidences again when we say a critical incidence that means anything that's that disrupts the behavior of the day-to-day work environment ones that we see a lot the death of an employee because that affects everybody around situations that may occur you know
23:00 - 23:30 anything again that disrupts the day-to-day work again we talked about the high touch as being available and again the biggest thing is that we're here I think you mentioned this at the beginning of our show when we were talking about um you know needing more than five sessions but I wanted to make sure we went back and Revisited that and how that coordination of care happens when you're going through the EAP process because you know sometimes you start out you don't know how many sessions you need to help you work through whatever concern you're presenting
23:30 - 24:00 so maybe you get to the end of those five sessions and you're like uh I think I really could benefit from continuing on can you kind of explain that process and how that would work depending on the topic if it's the same topic and use it you have exhausted your five visits if you wait 60 days okay you may be able to get another five visits but I would have to get permission from our director so that's one way um again if it's something that needs a deeper dive you will then be referred to
24:00 - 24:30 a psychiatrist or a psychologist again because at that point sometimes medications have to be administered um a lot of times you know sometimes too Miranda if an employee comes in and the clinician does an assessment and they determine at visit number two that this is going to be a long-term type of concern they will refer you on but again you know you still have your five visits usually the clinicians try to get you back on track and um the use of those is very beneficial
24:30 - 25:00 absolutely they are beneficial I know for instance if you're grieving the loss of a loved one you might you know get to session five and there just hasn't been enough time to go through that whole grief process and you might still need some help going through whatever stage you are encountering next and if you needed to continue to see maybe that same counselor how would you coordinate that care or how would that be the member that it coordinates that care or would the counselor help with that process how does that work the counselor will help with that process again we want the employee to stay in
25:00 - 25:30 the network okay so through Optima EAP I believe you guys have Behavioral Health is that how that would be coordinated yes and then if you're not on the optimal health plan whichever Health Plan provider you have Optima EAP would work with whoever is in your network to get that from you know your first counselor that you were seeing to your next one that would be an issue of transition so they would help with setting up that appointment with the new counselor
25:30 - 26:00 well I don't think they would set up the appointment but maybe give you some resources um if it's a if it's a clinician that's not in our Network then they will probably help to look at what clinicians are in the network and help them to transition over because you know clinicians have relationships also so they may say well Suzanne I know Miss Miranda Morales who's able to do and then you know maybe make that reach out right to try to help okay you mentioned that a member could
26:00 - 26:30 continue to see the same counselor beyond that those five sessions how would that transition between EAP services and the um Health Plan Services work you know it would be great if the clinician that they are seeing is also on the behavioral health panel because that would be almost like a seamless because they would move from the EAP where the sessions are covered at 100 versus now they're moving into a copay deductible co-insurance but the great thing is that you know we have a behavioral health department and they
26:30 - 27:00 have providers they have more than enough providers out there to try to help help the employees to to further on with the treatment that they need again once you get to the psychiatrist and the psychologist level sometimes medications have to be administered and we cannot do that in EAD that's outside of our scope so it sounds like you know depending on what health plan you have through Optima um whether it's co-insurance or copay you'll be connected with a counselor who
27:00 - 27:30 is already a part of the network yes they've already been panel credentialed the whole nine yards everything that they need to do is already done it's just a matter of getting the employee connected all right so kind of Switching gears a little bit I know there are sometimes things that you need assistance with maybe not you know speaking to a counselor per se but something you are going through in life and you just need some more information on um you know like my son's surgery I needed to watch a video on how that worked um where do do we have any additional
27:30 - 28:00 resources that employees can access that type of thing yes we have the website and it gets me all excited but our website um is optimainap.com the username to get in is Virginia Beach when you go out there Miranda there are articles there are webinars there's seminars all kinds of information we have a search box where you can key in one word like resiliency and it will pull up so many articles for you to read you know I admit sometimes people may not need to talk to a clinician have you
28:00 - 28:30 ever been in a situation where you can just read an article and it just kind of puts you into the mode where you need to be and that's where the employees can find out several different articles out there um if you want to know more about our team about Optima eat EAP we have pictures out there we have a covid resource center oh my goodness if if you want to go out there and find out anything about covet and staff in schools that their thoughts of the week that we send out every Monday morning they go back at least two years then on our website there's a title for training
28:30 - 29:00 there's one for work life there's one for legal there's one for finance so you click behind those tiles and you'll find several articles out there also which then leads me into the new benefit that we have effective January 1st and it's a work-life benefit all right you go out there to the work lifetile you click on access it online it takes you into a whole world of uh there's information out there about Legal Financial identity there's information about work-life services and the cool thing is that now you're able to talk to a consultant so if I wanted
29:00 - 29:30 to plan a wedding and I needed resources I can make that you still call the 1-800 number you'll be warm transferred over and then the consultant there will give you all of the resources that you need okay so if you had a work-life service need you could call the 1-800 number and then depending on what services you're looking for they would connect you with that is good to know you can talk to the consultant that's actually somebody that you can talk to but the Legal Financial and the work life Services
29:30 - 30:00 um under the work life becomes Financial assist if you need information on debt buying a home Wills things like that the Legal Financial is if your identity is ever stolen you know you hear horror stories all the time it's hard if somebody steals my identity it's hard for me to get me back and so they're Consultants that you can talk to about that and then the legal part you have 30 minutes to talk that actually talk to an attorney so it's worth this waiting and you access that through the 1-800
30:00 - 30:30 numbers yes ma'am yes ma'am that's great stuff I know we were talking about managers being able to call that 1-800 number as well to get advice on a situation um do managers have any other resources that they can access uh there's a manager toolkit right there once again on the website out there you will find the forms that you need for referrals you know the voluntary referrals the one where the employee kind of calls themselves the informal one is just a little reminder don't forget what a mandatory referral there's paperwork
30:30 - 31:00 that has to be completed and it's pretty detailed so they can go out there they can either submit the paperwork online there's information out there about the do's and don'ts the biggest thing we tell the employees or the employers let our Clinic Nations do the job okay don't try to do an assessment and then just um we ask that all referrals go through our EAP clinical manager uh first for consultation right so the managers can find the paperwork they need and also you know a list of maybe what is helpful
31:00 - 31:30 in those situations and what is maybe less helpful that's good to know so I've been on the website and I love it I love how accessible the information is what if maybe you're not quite as tech savvy or you're having a really hard time finding maybe something on a specific topic what options would a person have you know what we have so many articles our Communications has a lot of Articles and flyers that can be used if the employee would just call into the 1-800 number and then our operations team will
31:30 - 32:00 send me an email and then I can quickly get that information to them you touch on it a little bit already if an employee were to have or a member of their household have a concern that fell outside of the EAP umbrella of services that they could provide what would happen in that situation okay keeping in mind that EAP is for short-term solution focused type challenges and concerns it may be a point where the clinician visit number two the clinician does an assessment and they determine you know
32:00 - 32:30 what this is outside of the scope of EAP and we need to refer you on to a psychiatrist or psychologist because at that time sometimes Miranda medications have to be administered and we don't do medications in EAP so again it's pretty much up to the clinician to do the assessment to determine you know hey do you continue on with the five visits or do we need to get you where you need to be right all right last question for today I know you mentioned earlier that Optima EAP does respond and plays a role in critical incident or response yes
32:30 - 33:00 [Music] um what happens so once the supervisor has reached out and made those arrangements what does that look like for the employees well a lot of times what will happen is the clinical manager then makes an assessment
33:00 - 33:30 um he'll ask questions from the manager and ask you know do you need one-on-one or do you need group sessions and at that point the employees are more than welcome to participate a lot of times like I said you there may be an employee that passed away and so group sessions are good for that so again you can do a one-on-one or you can do a group so in addition to all that we talked about today is there anything else Suzanne that you feel like our listeners should know about Optima EAP well you know even though it's about Optima EAP
33:30 - 34:00 my biggest thing is encouraging people to be nice to one another be kind to one another because you don't know when somebody's going through something and one of my famous sayings is if you see somebody going through something say something and if they say something to you please listen and encourage them to use Optima EAP just information they have five business without clinicians not only for the employee but for them in their household and it's just a wonderful way to kind of talk through some of the things that you're going through in life again short-term solution Focus we're here for
34:00 - 34:30 you thanks again for being our guest today and talking through the ins and outs of the EAP program we hope today's discussion is helpful in removing any roadblocks that may have been there before for our employees and members of their household to reach out and receive these services or even just awareness about the website and all the great resources that are available yes 24 7 through that resource Optima EAP is available to come on site and give
34:30 - 35:00 employee orientations to review this information and so much more about how to access EAP services and to give an overview to the employees at your site if you're interested reach out to your supervisor and they can scan this QR code to submit their request in addition to today's discussion we'd like to remind you of the resources available for City and School Employees if you or someone you know is in crisis call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 988 and speak with a skilled
35:00 - 35:30 trained counselor at a crisis center in your area anytime 24 7. Virginia Beach City and School Employees are encouraged to contact their employee assistance program through Optima EAP for short-term counseling and a wide array of work-life services that can help you balance the many tasks you may have call them at 757-363-677 or 1-800-899-8174 or you can go to their website at optimainap.com using the
35:30 - 36:00 company username Virginia Beach work-life services are available on the Optima EAP website and enhanced Services can be accessed at the URL on the screen instructions for creating an account are on the web page thank you for joining us for this episode of life's a beach a forum for VB City and School staff to hear and participate in everyday discussions about how we're thinking feeling and doing speaking of city and School staff we'd love to hear from you please fill out our mental and emotional health
36:00 - 36:30 topic survey and let us know what you want to hear about in the future you'll find the link in the description for this episode and please remember to like this episode And subscribe to our VB Benefits YouTube channel just click that button you could do it we believe in you