EAP Services

The Employee Assistance Program (EAP) provides a variety of services for Texas A&M University employees including personal counseling, mediation, and crisis intervention.

Personal Counseling Services

This service offers faculty, staff, and their eligible dependents an opportunity to discuss personal and job related issues affecting their lives. A counselor will assist in identifying problem areas and work toward resolution of the difficulties. In addition, assistance can be provided to help initiate services through the individual's health plan or other community resources as needed. When appropriate, eligible employees may attend 10 to 12 counseling sessions at the EAP.

Management Consultation

Services include consultations with supervisors, management, and faculty on issues such as employee job productivity concerns, conflict in the work environment, team building, and the referral process to the EAP. These consultations may result in individual or workplace interventions to resolve the problem.

Alcohol and Drug Assessments

Faculty, staff, and eligible dependents may seek services to determine whether substance abuse is a problem in their life. The EAP staff assess whether chemical dependency treatment or counseling is necessary and a referral to the appropriate resource is made. Employee Alcohol & Drug Abuse and Rehabilitation Program.

Crisis Intervention

These are services provided to faculty, staff, and eligible dependents when emergency situations arise. The concept of this service is to make a swift response to the person in need. Assessments are made and an action plan to cope with the current emergency is developed. Referrals to other appropriate resources are made when necessary.

Death in the Campus Community

When a death occurs in the campus community, often people are uncertain about what to do. How will the appropriate university officials be notified so they can respond? Who should contact the family, friends and colleagues? Visit "Death in the Campus Community" for more information and resources. Faculty, staff, and their dependents may seek EAP consultation when dealing with a death. Assistance can also be provided to help initiate services through the individual's health plan or other community resources

Job Jeopardy Program

This is a program designed to keep at risk employees on the job and from being terminated. Faculty and staff are referred to this program by their supervisors or managers. Employees who have had multiple discipline problems and/or are at risk of being terminated from their position are eligible for this program. The Employee Assistance Program staff work with the supervisor, manager, and employee to develop a plan to change behavior so that the employee may remain employed.

An initial assessment is completed by the EAP staff to determine the concerns and nature of the problem. Releases of Information are gathered so that all parties may be involved in the planning stage of treatment. When appropriate, the EAP staff provides short-term personal counseling to help the employee. Referrals to other appropriate resources are made when longer term treatment issues are identified.

This program may not be used for discipline purposes as employees have the choice of whether they will participate in the referral to the program and the recommendations made by the EAP staff.

Mediation Services

Employee issues may benefit from informal mediation services provided by the EAP staff. A recommendation of supervisor consultation with EAP to determine appropriateness of issues for mediation in order to resolve workplace problems is suggested. The mediation is provided as a service for faculty, staff, coworker and manager or supervisor.

Critical Incident Stress Debriefing (CISD)

Critical Incident Stress is the normal reaction to a sudden and unexpected event that is beyond the range of normal everyday human experience. On the average, 80% of people exposed to a critical incident will develop some sort of stress reaction. A critical incident is any event that adversely affects an employee or department and causes an increase of stress or stress reactions, immediate or delayed. The most common workplace critical incidents are tragedies, deaths, serious accidents and injuries, and threatening situations.

Critical Incident Stress Debriefing is a process designed specifically to prevent or mitigate the development of post stress related issues. It involves a series of interventions at the workplace for faculty and staff involved in the critical incident and affected by the incident. The debriefing involves group and/or individual meetings led by trained mental health staff from the Employee Assistance Program.

Alcohol and Drug Testing Program

To comply with the Federal guidelines such as the Drug-Free Workplace Act and the Department of Transportation's Omnibus Testing Act, the Employee Assistance Program administers the University's Alcohol and Drug Testing Program. Administration of this program includes annual distribution of educational materials, alcohol and drug policy interpretations, consultation with supervisors, educational workshops, and general oversight of the testing procedures.

Educational Presentations

The Employee Assistance program provides educational workshops on a variety of topics. Workshops presented include alcohol and drugs in the workplace, efficiency and procrastination, and stress management. Regularly scheduled presentations are listed in the online workshop schedule through Employee Development. Departments may also contact the EAP Office to schedule additional presentations or request special topics. The EAP also provides the Interpersonal Dimensions of Management certificate program.