Research

EASNA is dedicated to improving workplace behavioral health through research and the exchange of information among researchers, evaluators, practitioners, and allied professionals. By translating research into practice, EASNA works to create healthy and productive workplaces.

EASNA members receive the Journal of Workplace Behavioral Health: Employee Assistance Practice and Research, a quarterly refereed journal that profiles research in employee assistance and other related fields.

EASNA Research Notes

The Knowledge Transfer and Research Committe is proud to begin publishing EASNA Research Notes. Each month we will issue a new edition of the Notes, addressing topics of current interest in the behavioral healthcare field. In the first Notes you can learn more about the history and growth of the EAP field, a topic within the new Selecting and Strengthening Employee Assistance Programs: A Purchaser's Guide (see the Publications page for more information on the Guide).

For copies of this monthly publication, visit the Publications page on this website.

Knowledge Transfer and Research Committee

EASNA’s Knowledge Transfer and Research Committee (KT&R) provides members the opportunity to be a part of research activities which aim to mobilize the dissemination of innovative practice and development of new technologies as well as build bridges to the greater research community.

Members of EASNA’s KT& R Committee are engaged in research and evaluation in a number of areas in the EAP field including these:

EAP utilization,
outcomes related to workplace performance, absenteeism, and presenteeism,
crisis intervention,
identification and treatment of substance misuse,
telehealth,
analyses of management referrals,
practitioner training and development.

A sample of the committee members’ work follows.

EAP Outcomes and Telehealth (Federal Occupational Health)

Federal Occupational Health (FOH) has conducted data analyses and has published findings related to EAP outcomes, including, absenteeism, productivity, global assessment of functioning, and perceived health status. FOH has also conducted an extensive program evaluation of telephone counseling in the EAP.

Alcohol Screen and Brief Intervention (Goplerud and McPherson)

Eric Goplerud, PhD, Tracy McPherson, PhD and colleagues at Ensuring Solutions to Alcohol Problems, in the Department of Health Policy at The George Washington University Medical Center, have conducted research on the use of alcohol screening and brief intervention (SBI) techniques by employers and vendors, and the adaptation of medical SBI approaches for work-related settings such as the EAP.

EAP Program, University of Maryland—Baltimore (Jacobson)

In the School of Social Work at the University of Maryland-Baltimore, Jodi M. Jacobson, PhD, LCSW-C, CEAP (Assistant Professor) has conducted research on EAP and Work/Life outcomes, workplace crisis intervention, suicide prevention, preventing burnout and supporting resiliency among EA professionals and other human service providers, and building an evidence-base for skills training education.

Treating Addictive Behaviors in EAP (Chan Osilla)

Karen Chan Osilla, PhD has conducted research on screening and brief intervention (SBI) for at-risk drinking in provider offices and call centers of EA programs and treating addictive behaviors in the employee assistance program: Implications for brief interventions. She is also interested in the development of occupation-based U.S. drinking norms for use in SBI and training in motivational interviewing.

Making the Business Case for EAP (Attridge)

Mark Attridge, Ph.D., consultant in independent practice as President of Attridge Studios, specializes in designing measurement systems and outcome research studies for workplace health services, writing literature review white papers, and development and customization of return on investment (ROI) analysis tools. Dr. Attridge’s primary areas of interest include the making the business case for EAP and workplace mental health (), EAP climical and workplace outcomes and evaluation, and integration of EAP and health services . (See: Herlihy section on this page.)

EAP Affiliates (Sharar)

Dave Sharar with Chestnut Global Partners conducted a survey of a random sample of "EAP Affiliates" (e.g. network providers) to assess if and how these affiliates treat EAP clients differently from general practice clients.A full description of the results of this study, “Do EAP Affiliates Adhere to EAP Concepts? An Examination of EAP Affiliate Fidelity to EAP Theory and Practice,” is available in a presentation you can view by clicking here.

Integration of EAP and Work/Life Services (Herlihy)

Patricia Herlihy, Ph.D., R.N., is CEO of RockyMountain Research and has been studying the area of integration of services for 20 years after a substatial stint as Massachusetts General Hospital as a cardiac nurse. Dr. Herlihy's current primary area of interest includes the integration of EAP, Work/Life, and Wellness Services.

Utilization Rates and Professional and Peer Support (Csiernik)

Rick Csiernik, MSW, Ph.D., has conducted extensive work on EAP issues in Canada including writing case studies on the University of Saskatchewan and St. Joseph's (London) Health Care Centre EAPs, examining utilization rates and program and policy development along with offering his own integrated model of occupational assistance discussing the convergence of professional and peer support for both individual employees and organizations. Rick is the author of Wellness and Work: EAP in Canada.