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.
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.
Integration of EAP and Health Services (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 integration of EAP and health services, ROI and making the business case for EAP and workplace mental health, and EAP outcomes and evaluation. (See: Herlihy, Attridge, & Turner 2002. National survey finds trend toward integration of employee assistance and work/life fields. Presented at American Psychological Society Annual Conference, New Orleans, LA.)
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.