A PLACE FOR MARRIGE AND FAMILY SERVICES IN EMPLOYEE ASSISTANCE PROGRAMS (EAPs): A SURVEY OF EAP CLIENT PROBLEMS AND NEEDS

Journal of Marital and Family Therapy, Jan 2004 by Shumway, Sterling T, Wampler, Richard S, Dersch, Charette, Arredondo, Rudy

Employee assistance professionals rate marital and family problems as the second-most severe issue affecting employees at work (Rodriguez & Borgen, 1998). When employees are asked to identify problems, marital and family problems are ranked either first or second in frequency (first, EAPA, 1996; second, Rodriguez & Borgen, 1998). The need for family and couple services is further demonstrated by the frequency of marital and/or family problems as the presenting problem for EA services. According to Bayer (1995) approximately 35% of all EAP cases begin as or develop into marital or family therapy. Further, there is a high correlation between unhappy, unresolved family relationships and poor EAP outcomes (Wright & Beach, 1992). When surveyed, EAP coordinators overwhelmingly endorsed the idea that a large number of their employee-clients had severe family problems (marital, children, relationships, parents) that required professional intervention (Chima, 1995; EAPA, 1996).

Even though the recognition that family/marital problems contribute to employee stress has grown, EAPs have not responded adequately to the need for family involvement in EAP services (Googins, 1991a, 1991b, 1992c; Wright & Beach, 1992). According to one source, the eleventh possible intervention for marital conflict is to ask the employee to bring in the spouse to discuss a referral to a "marriage counselor," and the thirteenth possible intervention for a parent-child problem is to refer the employee for "individual treatment for the child or family therapy" (Oher, Conti, & Jongsma, 1998, p. 129). Despite clear evidence of the relevance of spousal and/or family involvement, its cost effectiveness, and its success (Wright & Beach, 1992), much of the EAP literature does not mention marital or family therapy, either as a part of EAP services or as a potential referral outside the EAP (Bayer, 1995). Even when the interactions between employee problems on the job and the way their families are functioning are used to emphasize the importance of prevention efforts, such as family/work programs, family therapy is not advocated or even identified as relevant (Ansel, 1993; Benjamin, 1993; Googins, 1992a; Herlihy, 2000; Krusor & Blakar, 1992).

Although various authors acknowledge that marital problems are associated with substance abuse, chemical dependency, and other problems bringing employees to EAP services (McCarthy, 1992; Miller, Jones, & Miller, 1992), information for EA professionals is limited to rather vague statements, such as, "It is important that EAP personnel be knowledgeable in this area [MFT] and have referral sources to remediate these problems" (Dickman, 1997). In-house services provided by professionals trained in marriage and family therapy have not been listed as a potential offering. Although it would be reasonable to predict that marital issues would be very relevant in helping employees deal with corporate downsizing (Bayer, 1995), there is no mention of MFT services as appropriate or needed in a recent article on the subject (Worster, 2000). Even when services for family members are recommended, it is common for authors to advocate treating family members as individuals, failing to recognize or acknowledge the potential benefits of treating the couple or family conjointly (Bayer, 1995).