Enlightened employers are helping staff find solutions when they're troubled.

It's often said that talk is cheap, but when it comes to mental health and emotional well-being, talking can often stop little problems from growing into big ones.

It's a fact recognised by the 80 per cent of Australia's top 500 companies who offer Employee Assistance Programs (EAPs), which are free, confidential counselling services to help staff and their families manage challenges in their personal and professional lives.

A 2010 survey of 4500 clients by Australia's largest provider of EAPs, Davidson Trahaire Corpsych (DTC), found that engagement with an EAP resulted in an average improvement in respondents' emotional well-being of 82 per cent, a 43 per cent improvement in work-life management and a 50 per cent improvement in morale and motivation.

The chief executive of the Mental Health Council of Australia, Frank Quinlan, says more workplaces are embracing the need to care for employees' mental health in the same way they care for their physical health.

"There are a whole raft of things affecting somebody's ability to perform at work and an increasing number of employers are finding providing a broader range of support can result in a happier, more productive workplace," he says.

Early intervention is the key to mental fitness and it seems that message has been heard. The chief executive of DTC, Michele Grow, says increased awareness and willingness to seek help has led to growth in demand for EAPs, which she describes as short-term, solution-focused therapy.

"An EAP is not about solving people's problems," Grow says. "It's about helping them to have strategies to, in effect, move forward themselves."

She says counsellors can't change clients' situations but they can help them understand challenges and find ways to cope.

About 60 per cent of DTC's clients seek help with personal issues such as relationships or anxiety and 40 per cent require help with work-related problems such as team conflict, work overload or work-life balance. Clients presenting with long-term or serious mental-health problems are referred to specialists.

An initial consultation to talk through issues is often followed up in person, by phone, online or by video. The counsellor will devise appropriate support strategies and will sometimes issue behavioural homework. A client struggling with sleep could be asked to practise breathing exercises and keep a diary of their habits and someone failing to progress in their career might be taught how to present themselves better and improve their productivity.

Counsellors can also offer support in times of crisis and critical incident and can help managers deal with employees in need or conflict. Grow says workplace conflict is frequently left too long.

"Employers often think a problem will sort itself out and it generally doesn't," she says. "It will get worse and either someone will leave, take time off or their productivity plummets and it spreads to the broader workforce.

"Often the longer things are left, the worse it's going to get, not the better."

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beyondblue.org.au
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Clear and in control

It took about three minutes for an Employee Assistance Program to change Tanya Brooks-Cooper's life.

The bubbly 37-year-old welfare worker and mother of four had a new job as a youth officer with the Cairns Regional Council when she lost control of her workload and burnt out.

"There was such an opportunity to do good from my position that I just felt the need to say yes to everything," she says. "I felt like I was never done."

Brooks-Cooper was coming home so late that at times she hardly saw her children and when she did, her mind was still at work. Her whole family suffered.

"When you go home and say you've had a terrible day, everyone in the house has a terrible day with you," she says.
It was her team leader who suggested she use the council's EAP. The benefits were instant.

Her counsellor gave her simple strategies to regain control. Learning to check her to-do list before bed stopped her waking in the night and using a big desk calendar so she could visualise her schedule helped her manage time better. She was also taught how to cope with incessant emails and competing deadlines and learnt how to say no.

"Once there was that opportunity to take back some control, I was re-engaging in my role," she says. "I wasn't disengaging and panicking. Then you start achieving, which builds that cycle where you're feeling better about yourself.

" It cleared up my thinking."