Employee Assistance Program

Each and everyone one of you bring a unique effort in achieving the goals and vision of the organisation, providing Best Care to our patients. It is important that we look after ourselves and each other so that we are able to be the best we can be at work.

The purpose of the Employee Assistance Program (EAP) is to provide care and support to anyone who requires assistance in managing a wide range of work related or family and personal issues that are affecting their work performance and/or general wellbeing.

As part of caring for ourselves and our teams, we have recently expanded our EAP to include not only employees and volunteers but their immediate family members also.

EAP is a stress and life management tool that provides a solution-focused approach where:

• You are given the opportunity to be heard
• Issues can be clarified
• Options and strategies to support you to achieve positive outcomes are identified

You are encouraged to seek EAP as a supportive option to address issues. You are also encouraged to promote and support the use of EAP by colleagues.

Often, the longer an issue is left unattended, the more aspects of your life may become affected. A minor issue can accumulate to become a major one.

Participation in EAP means that you are proactively seeking possible solutions to situations that are currently impacting your life. It is a healthy and brave response to seek support, direction and connection. This does not signify weakness, failure or incompetency in any way.

Some of the issues that EAP can assist with include:

• Mental Health/clinical issues, such as: anxiety and depression, alcohol or substance abuse, gambling or other addictions, financial matters, physical health concerns, self-esteem issues
• Relationship and family issues, such as: conflict and tension, separation/divorce or relationship issues, coping or dealing with loss, grief and bereavement, concerns about anxiety or mental health issues experienced by family members
• Workplace wellbeing, such as: harassment and/or discrimination, workplace bullying, conflicts, challenging work demands, i.e. hours, workload, resources, over or under supervision
• Workplace professional development, such as dealing with work or life changes, career direction
• Manager Support, including effective performance management processes, people management, team conflict, difficult staff, organisational change, as well as preventative strategies. This service aims to confidentially support, coach and guide managers as they aim to develop their management skills and maintain relationships with their teams.

Western Health EAP is managed by Caraniche At Work, an external provider.
To access the EAP, you can self-refer by contacting Caraniche At Work directly to schedule an appointment with one of the available psychologists. All Western Health personnel and their immediate family can access our EAP.

Contact Details:
Phone: 1800 099 444 (available 24 hours a day, 7 days)
Email: work@caraniche.com.au
Online booking: https://work.caraniche.com.au/make-a-booking/
Note: emails are responded to during business hours only. Bookings through the online portal require our employer code found in this procedure or the intranet.

Caraniche at Work provides several services to Western Health. These include:

Counselling
Counselling is a primarily 1:1 short term intervention strategy, voluntary and confidential in nature, which provides professional, psychological care to any personnel and their families who require assistance in managing a wide range of work related, family, or personal issues that affect work performance and/or general wellbeing.

Critical incident Response
Following a critical incident the EAP Provider adopts Psychological First Aid (PFA) as an immediate intervention.
Critical incident response will include Employee Assistance Program access for individuals, stress stocktakes for teams, critical incident stress defusing, critical incident stress debriefing, preventative stress stocktakes and wellbeing/pulse checks.

Stress Stocktakes
This is a facilitated team/group event to assess and respond proactively to cumulative stress in the work place. The focus is on exploring possible solutions and following these sessions, with participants’ consent, de-identified thematic feedback can be provided to relevant managers.

Manager Support
Manager Support is a confidential coaching service that is now available for all Western Health Managers, Team Leaders and/or Supervisors by providing:

• Advice and support for managers
• Strategies for supporting your team
• Understanding and managing difficult staff
• Strategies for supporting your team
• Organisational change and its impact on your people
• Mental health impact and understanding
• Providing effective feedback

For more information, refer to our Accessing Mental Health and Wellbeing Support Procedure and/or the EAP intranet page.

The EAP service is a confidential psychological service. All session content material and notes taken by the treating psychologist are kept confidential, except when there is a duty of care to share information with a third party. This includes if there is a perceived risk to personnel or somebody else, if the information is subpoenaed, and if reporting is mandated subject to legislative requirements. All information about one’s engagement in EAP is not recorded in any member’s personnel file and belongs to Caraniche at Work as per the rights and privacy principles outlined in legislation.

For all appointments, Caraniche at Work will provide the Organisational Culture and Leadership Development (OCLD) Unit with an invoice and non-identifying data used for statistical purposes only.

Further detail on confidentiality can be found through the Accessing Mental Health and Wellbeing Support Procedure and Caraniche at Work website.

Visit the Westerly Wellbeing & Support site for practical information and resources to support you in taking care of yourself.
For other support services, refer to this brochure.