Employee Assistance Program: About Us
What is the Employee Assistance Program (EAP)?
The Employee Assistance Program (EAP) offers free, confidential, professional counseling and consultation services by telephone or in person.
Who is eligible for EAP services?
All Cornell University benefit eligible faculty, staff and their dependents.
Why does Cornell provide an EAP?
The EAP is a free service provided by Cornell University to enhance employee well-being. When problems are addressed, the EAP helps to minimize the costs to the university in terms of lowered work performance and high health care utilization and costs.
Why should someone contact the EAP?
Cornell University's Employee Assistance Program (EAP) is a professional, confidential resource that can be used to address personal and workplace concerns and difficulties, and to solve problems. Individuals contact the EAP for many reasons including marital or relationship problems, parenting issues, child or eldercare concerns, financial worries, or concerns about their own or someone else's mental health or substance abuse. Employees with workplace concerns such as job performance or conflicted relationships with other staff members can contact the EAP. Supervisors can contact the EAP when concerned about an employee's behavior at work.
What kinds of problems can EAP help with?
We can help with any personal or work-related problem that is affecting your sense of well-being, your daily life or job performance. Here are some of the issues that we deal with everyday:
- Stress related emotional issues
- Relationship issues
- Family issues and Parent-Child concerns
- Domestic Violence
- Divorce/ separation adjustment
- Alcohol and drug concerns
- Single Parenting
- Aging Parents
- Grief / loss issues
- Depression and Anxiety
- Financial concerns
- Interpersonal difficulties
- Workplace adjustment challenges
- Workplace conflicts and concerns
- Job dissatisfaction or Burnout
- Job performance issues
What services are available?
Assessment, Counseling, and Information and Referral: When seeking a solution to problems or concerns people often try to solve it themselves. Sometimes they confide in family and friends. A call to the EAP can be helpful when a problem persists, when the solutions generated don't seem to work, or when a new perspective or additional options are needed.
Consultation:
Supervisors play a key role in creating and maintaining healthy
and productive employees and work groups. Supervisors consult with
the EAP for assistance in managing employees with personal problems
or whose behaviors are causing poor job performance or interpersonal
conflicts.
Workshops: . The EAP offers university wide training and
educational workshops that are available to all employees. Information
regarding current programs may be found in the Catalogue of Workshops
for Staff and Faculty. In addition, programs can be tailored to
meet the specific needs of a unit or department.
Crisis Intervention
and Crisis Management including Group Consultation and Community
Debriefing: The EAP provides leadership when a crisis occurs,
including coordination of necessary personnel and resources so that
the immediate and longer term needs of individuals and organization
can be met.
Are EAP services confidential?
Counseling often involves disclosing sensitive personal information. This information is protected by state law and by professional ethics. Therefore, no acknowledgement of your status as a client or information about your counseling will be released to anyone unless you have given written permission, or as may be required by law. There are a few exceptions to this confidentiality policy for you to know about.
- Abuse of Children: Counselors who know or have reasonable suspicion that a child under the age of 18 is being abused or neglected are legally mandated to report this situation to the appropriate agency.
- Imminent Harm to Self: If a counselor believes you are in danger of physically harming yourself and are unwilling or unable to follow treatment recommendations, they may contact a family member or another person who may be able to protect you. The counselor may seek your involuntary admission to a hospital if deemed necessary.
- Imminent Harm to Others: If a counselor has reason to believe that you are actually threatening physical violence against another person, or if you have a history of physically violent behavior and that you pose a real threat to the safety of another person, they may be required to take some action to insure that the other person is protected. Such action may include contacting the police, notifying the other person and/or seeking involuntary hospitalization.
The situations described above are rare. However, if they should occur, it is the Employee Assistance Program practice to discuss with you any action that is being considered. You should be aware that the EAP is not legally obligated to inform you or seek your permission, especially if such a discussion would prevent securing your safety or the safety of others. If disclosure of confidential information becomes necessary, only the information necessary to protect you and/or another person will be released.
How are services accessed?
- Employee Self-Referral: Employees who elect to use the service at their own initiative should contact EAP directly. An EAP counselor will work with the staff member to assist in identifying the problem and its cause, resolving the problem, or when appropriate, securing other treatment or counseling services. The EAP counselor may refer the staff member to community-based resources for the treatment of problems that are beyond the scope of EAP. Information given to the counselor is confidential.
- Supervisory Referral: A supervisor can refer an employee to the EAP. Supervisors may detect a change in a staff member's on-the-job behavior that seems to suggest that the staff member is experiencing difficulty. Patterned absences and unusual mood swings may be symptomatic of some influences in the staff member's life that might benefit from the kind of attention available through EAP. Since it is clearly not the supervisor's job to attempt to diagnose any such problems, a reasonable course of action might include a reminder to the staff member of the availability of EAP and the accompanying suggestion of the value of participating in the program.
- Condition of Employment Referral: A mandatory supervisory referral to EAP requires a staff member to participate in EAP as a condition of continued employment at Cornell University. This type of referral is made only in extreme cases of deteriorating job performance, where the individual's continued employment is brought into question.
Where are the EAP offices located, what are the phone numbers and when are they open?
The office is at 409 College Avenue, Ithaca, NY. Office hours are 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Monday through Friday. The telephone number is: (607) 255-1531. If you call after hours, on the weekend or holidays you can leave a message and someone will return your call on the next business day. If you need immediate service, information for obtaining it is provided. Family Counseling Services of the Finger Lakes is open 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Monday through Friday, and evenings by appointment. Family Counseling Services of the Finger Lakes main office is located at 671 Exchange Street, Geneva, New York. They have branch offices in Ontario, Seneca, Wayne counties and the Huber Building in Sodus, New York. The telephone number is: (315) 789-2613.