18 Nov 2019

How can EAPs assist employees with long-term health conditions?

One in three of the working age population in England suffer at least one long-term health condition, according to figures from Public Health England. This doesn’t mean they’re all unable to work – far from it.

But as an employer, you need to know how to support your people, especially those who might find the daily routine of work more difficult than others. After all, Public Health England found that, 42% of employees with a health condition regard that condition as affecting their work ‘a great deal’ or ‘to some extent’. Musculoskeletal disorders, mental health issues and other long-term chronic illnesses are common.

Managing and promoting the health and wellbeing of your staff needn’t be a challenge. While you could take on all the responsibility yourself – or hire in more staff to do that work for you – there is an easier way. One which will lessen the burden on you, reduce sickness absence, address absenteeism/presenteeism and boost staff morale: an employee assistance programme (EAP).

How does an EAP help to prevent health conditions?

The first thing to note is that an EAP is designed to help. While it’s a proactive way to deal with health conditions in the workplace, it’s not designed to prevent all illness or injury from happening. It’s a way to provide compassionate and active care for people who are already having issues. A good EAP can definitely help to prevent problems, and certainly provides education and aid in doing so. But when someone is suffering long-term, these are the ways that an EAP really comes into its own.

Counselling: sometimes, people just need a kind listening ear – particularly with mental health conditions. But even long-term physical issues like chronic pain take their toll on the mind, and knowing that trained professionals are there to listen to your problems is a great help. It’s not just listening – these counsellors can offer real, actionable advice, whether this is ways to manage pain, become calmer and more mindful, or even recommendations of types of physical therapy to seek out.
Education: a good EAP isn’t passive, it’s very much active. You’ll receive materials that explain various ways to combat issues – seasonal affective disorder, summer colds etc – and these are a brilliant way to provide information on keeping healthy.
Workshops: these are often deliverable at your workplace, and will cover a wide range of topics for your people to get to grips with, from eating well to keeping active to dealing with bereavement. Contact your EAP provider to see what they have on offer.

Of course, an EAP isn’t always able to shoulder absolutely everything by itself. There are plenty of things you yourself can do in your organisation.

Flexible hours: working from home, part-time hours and later starts can be a huge benefit for people with chronic conditions.
Training and reskilling: sometimes a chronic condition can make the work assigned to an employee difficult or even impossible to complete. Consider offering retraining, allowing you to keep good people around, and showing that you care.
Time away: people with chronic health conditions sometimes need long periods of time away from work. Key to making this smooth for everyone is understanding how to manage a return to work after this. Occupational health is a big part of an orderly return to work – with this one, an EAP is perfect. Remember that an EAP isn’t just for your employees, it’s there to help you, too.

This article is provided by Health Assured.