An Employee Assistance Program, or EAP, is a set of professional services designed to improve and/or maintain the productivity and healthy functioning of employees in the workplace. It also addresses an organization’s particular business needs, utilizing special knowledge and expertise about human behavior, mental health and workplace patterns. When issues such as stress, mood problems, substance abuse, conflict and workplace violence affect performance, an EAP can be invaluable. It is a program designed to assist employees when they are having difficulties, whether personal or job-related, by providing easily accessible and confidential counseling and solutions. An EAP benefits the employer by providing training, consultation regarding problem employees and mediation, if needed. This helps to reduce absenteeism, turnover and healthcare costs over time. An effective EAP improves an organization’s productivity, supervisory effectiveness and overall work environment. Preferred Behavioral Health Group offers a full-service EAP with a variety of options tailored to specific companies or organizations. We have been providing EAP services in New Jersey for over 25 years. We employ licensed professional clinicians with diverse specialties who are available to provide assessment, short-term problem solving and referrals to long-term providers or other resources in the community. Self-referral visits by employees are entirely confidential and are not reported to the employer. However, when management feels the need to make a more formal referral of an employee to the EAP for work performance concerns, the employee must sign a partial confidentiality release; attendance, level of cooperation, progress and any recommendations the EAP makes are reviewed with the manager. For more information, call us at 1-800-542-0184.