frontdesk EA Services – The Price is NOT Right
Advice in Cover Story Vital to EA Profession | By Maria Lund, LEAP, CEAP
T
he cover story in this issue of the Journal of Employee Assistance is essential reading for EAP practitioners. Dave Sharar, an esteemed, longtime EA professional, presents a sometimes painful, but necessary reality check about the state of the EA profession. As Dave aptly puts it, “We need a better way to get paid – a method that rewards EA vendors for delivering superior value to employees (clients) and employers – in other words, for achieving outcomes at a reasonable rate.” Along similar lines, EAPA CEO Greg DeLapp explains in a foreword to Dave’s important article: “The missing link that can promote our field lies in measuring the outcomes of EA services. We concretely need to demonstrate the results of our efforts.” Later in his article, Dave describes detailed alternatives to capitated pricing. Whatever the payment method, the key lies in measuring and illustrating the positive results of EAP. This month’s cover story is important for another reason. Starting with this edition of the JEA, EAPA will offer one free PDH for reading the cover story of each issue and answering a 5-item multiple choice quiz. Read Dave’s article, “Where Do We Go
From Here?” and answer the multiple choice questions at http://bit.ly/PDH_Q2JEA2019 (URL is case-sensitive). Instructions are provided at the end of the quiz on how to get your free PDH. Since wellness is increasingly becoming part of our employee assistance services, Andrea Lardani makes a compelling case for how EA professionals can assist with issues around breastfeeding in the workplace. Marina London also presents a wellness angle for service in her Tech Trends column, “Screen Time for Children & Adults: An Opportunity for EAPs.” Elsewhere in this issue of the JEA, Jongmin Woo continues a three-part report on suicide around the world by examining suicide prevention efforts in Korea. Jodi Jacobson Frey will examine suicide in the US in the last installment of this series. Trends and legislation regarding medical and recreational marijuana are changing rapidly. Tamara Cagney discusses the current state of this issue in another important feature. Technology is an increasingly important part of our practices, and Navya Singh and Tom
Shjerven present concrete examples of how EAPs can move core programs to a digital platform. Finally, we would love to hear your thoughts about the new, alldigital JEA. Comments are always welcome on EAPA’s LinkedIn page or via email at journal@ eapassn.org. As always, happy reading! v
EAPA Communications Advisory Panel Maria Lund, Chair – Columbia, SC maria.lund@firstsuneap.com
Mark Attridge – Minneapolis, MN mark@attridgeconsulting.com
Nancy R. Board – Seattle, WA nrboard@gmail.com
Daniel Boissonneault – Hamden, CT eap700@comcast.net
Mark Cohen – New York, NY mcohenintlcons@aol.com
Donald Jorgensen – Tucson, AZ donjorgensen@comcast.net
Andrea Lardani – Buenos Aires, ARG andreal@grupowellnesslatina.com
Peizhong Li – Beijing, China lipeizhong@eapchina.net
John Maynard – Boulder, CO johnbmaynard8@gmail.com
Bernie McCann – Waltham, MA mccannbag@gmail.com
Igor Moll – Al Den Haag, the Netherlands l.moll@ascender.nl
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