This research examined the effects of supervisor and subordinate biological sex and race on supervisory referrals to an EAP. The study tested Bayer and Gerstein's (1988a) similarity hypothesis from their Bystander-Equity Model of EAP Helping Behaviors. Four specific hypotheses were generated: 1) Female supervisors will more likely refer female subordinates than male subordinates to EAPs; 2) Male supervisors will refer equal numbers of female and male subordinates to EAPs; 3) Supervisors will refer more troubled workers of their own race than troubled workers of another race; and 4) Caucasian male supervisors will be the most likely to refer persons who are different from themselves (in terms of sex and race) to EAPs.Supervisors employed by a large southwestern County government who made referrals to their "inhouse" EAP were participants in this study. The sample included 146 supervisors who made 188 EAP referrals.A log-linear analysis that controlled for the sex and racial composition of the supervisors' subordinates was used to test the hypotheses. The independent variables were race (Caucasian, African American, & Hispanic) and sex (male & female) of the supervisors and their subordinates. The dependent variable was whether the subordinate was referred to the EAP or not. None of the hypotheses received support. Too few ethnic supervisors referred to the EAP to adequately test the race hypotheses (Hypotheses 3 & 4). Male and female supervisors were equally likely to refer male and female subordinates to the EAP.While none of the hypotheses received support, there were some interesting significant trends involving the employees' race and supervisors' sex. Hispanic subordinates were most likely to be referred to their EAP, and African-American subordinates were least likely to be referred. While Caucasian male supervisors followed this pattern, Caucasian female supervisors demonstrated an even stronger bias in this regard. Implications of these findings were discussed. / Department of Counseling Psychology and Guidance Services

This thesis is an evaluation of an early intervention Employee Assistance Program (EAP) incorporating Critical Incident Stress Management (CISM) operating in the South Australian Ambulance Service (SAAS). The program was developed specifically for SAAS and is known as the Peer Support Program. The program was designed with the intention of mitigating the effects of cumulative and traumatic stress among SAAS personnel. It reflects the philosophy which has underpinned the concept of early intervention, which is to provide emotional first aid and identify individuals who have experienced traumatic stress in the course of performing their duties within the pre-hospital care environment. The program further aims to reduce psychological injuries through the combination of psycho-education incorporating practical coping skills, initial crisis intervention offered by in-house service providers, namely Peer Support Officers (PSOs) and, when needed, psychological intervention offered through referral to mental health professionals (MHPs). / For professional practice, the research shows that a CISM-based EAP is effective when used in its entirety, specifically pre-incident education, peer support selection and training, and confidentiality are key contributors to the success of CISM and CISM-based programs. Practitioners need to ensure that programs are appropriately developed and continually maintained. Researchers and practitioners must also acknowledge the emergency first aid philosophy underlying early intervention. In conclusion, the study demonstrated that a program developed with CISM guidelines can be effective in mitigating the effects of cumulative and traumatic stress among emergency service personnel in SAAS, thus disproving the claim that all such programs are ineffective and/or harmful. Furthermore, the study demonstrates the value of including qualitative evaluation techniques, and demonstrates that insightful data can be obtained through a multi-method approach. This undermines the argument that a quasi-experimental study is the only method suitable for evaluation and it is recommended that further EAP and CISM research focus on comprehensive, mulit-method evaluation. / Thesis (PhD)--University of South Australia, 2006.

Thesis (MSD(Employee Assistance Programme))-University of Pretoria, 2007. / Abstract in English. Includes bibliographical references. Available on the Internet via the World Wide Web.

Thesis (Ph.D.(Social Work and Criminology))-University of Pretoria, 2008. / Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (M.S.W.)--Smith College School for Social Work, Northampton, Mass., 2009. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 63-65).

Thesis (M.S.) in Kinesiology and Phyiscal Education--University of Maine, 2003. / Includes vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 42-43).

M.A. / The Employee Assistance Program (EAP) is a worksite-based program designed to assist in the identification and resolution of productivity problems associated with employees impaired by personal and work-related concerns. Although EAPs have been established in government departments in South Africa in recent years, this model has not yet been tried in the Department of Education, Malamulele district. The Department of Education can be described as a work environment that has many characteristics common to most other work environments, but it appears that there are characteristics that are unique to the particular context that have to be considered before establishing an EAP in such context. This study will attempt to provide fresh perspectives to the Department of Education; it may happen that this model can be introduced subsequent to the submission of the recommendations. EAP is regarded as a component for workforce development and quality of work-life in contemporary organizations; therefore it is vital that this program should be established in the Department of Education. The primary aim of this study is to explore the perceptions and needs of teaching personnel regarding the feasibility and the implementation of EAP in the work environment. The objectives are as follows: to peruse the available literature relevant to the research topic, to collect qualitative data from teachers by means of focus groups, to compile a profile of perceptions and needs for the formulation of proposal regarding the feasibility of implementing an EAP in the educational setting, to transcribe, analyze and present the data that was collected in a way that it can generate knowledge about the feasibility of EAP in the rural area of Malamulele, to submit recommendations to the Department of Education and to identify and recommend areas for future research. The study was conducted with 12 teachers and 7 managers (principals) in the Department of Education, Malamulele district, Limpopo. The research findings postulate that teachers perceive EAP as vital and also feasible for their work environment. They articulate that it should have been established long time ago.

M.A. (Psychology) / Please refer to full text to view abstract

Please read the abstract (Summary) in the section 00front of this document / Thesis (DPhil (Social Work))--University of Pretoria, 2007. / Social Work and Criminology / DPhil / unrestricted

Employer’s assistance to employees experiencing personal problems originated in the 19th century. The term Employee Assistance Programme (EAP) was however formulated in the 1970’s in the United States and, initially, only focused on alcohol dependence rehabilitation. EAPs have since seen a paradigm shift in their focus as they now deal with the full range of problems experienced by employees such as family life or relationship issues, work related stresses, financial pressures, depression or anxiety, alcohol and drug abuse. The researcher observed that some employees in the psychiatric institution, where they are employed as both professionals and non-professionals, were experiencing personal problems and very little if anything was done to provide assistance to them. It also seemed as if very few of them made use of the voluntary EAP service made available by the institution. The fact that a number of employees have problems can have serious negative consequences in that it causes a high rate of absenteeism and the institution’s core business, which is to provide care to its users, is compromised. The researcher undertook this study because EAP services fall within the realm of institutional development. This study could therefore make an invaluable contribution to the transformation discourse which has been taking place in the South African health systems in general and psychiatric institutions in particular. The purpose of this research is to determine employees’ experience of utilizing an EAP in a psychiatric hospital. The researcher is personally interested in employees’ experiences of utilizing the EAP in order to provide recommendations that will assist and strengthen the policy/guidelines for the Eastern Cape Department of Health on the use of EAPs. The workplace has an obligation to provide EAP services to employees so as to help them meet their contractual obligations in a holistic and healthy manner. The research goals are to explore the experiences of employees who have utilized an EAP. The findings will be used to make recommendations regarding the utilization of the EAP policy/guidelines that are currently used to assist the employees. The research methodology will be qualitative, descriptive, exploratory and contextual. The research population and sampling for this study will consist of the employees who have made use of an EAP. Participants will be selected using a purposive sampling approach. Data gathering will be done using semi-structured interviews, at a venue convenient to the participants. Open-ended questions will be asked to enable participants to express their perceptions on the topic. The data will be analyzed using Tesch’s method of data analysis. The identified themes will be used to describe employees’ experience of utilizing an EAP. Trustworthiness will be ensured by using Guba’s model of trustworthiness. The ethical principles of beneficence, self-determination and justice will be ensured by asking for each participant’s consent, by not coercing individuals to participate in the study and by ensuring permission from the Department of Health and from the University’s research committee to conduct the study.