Individuals and immediate family members may access the service for support with a variety of personal and work-related issues, including but not limited to:

• • Addiction/dependency/substance abuse

• • Anxiety/stress/depression

• • Relationship issues

• • Family/parenting challenges

• • Bereavement

• • Bullying/harassment/discrimination/intimidation

• • Stress related to child care/elder care/disability care

• • Career/job-related stress

• • Domestic violence

• • Behavioral disorders

• • Gay/lesbian/gender issues

• • Illness of a family member

Face-To-Face Counseling

After the intake assessment, our provider relations staff will match the employee with a counselor who meets his or her particular needs and preferences. Balance EAP’s provider network includes counselors with a variety of backgrounds and skills. Our database includes detailed information about our counselors, including gender, training, experience in a particular area, languages spoken, insurance accepted, and ethnicity/nationality, military experience, sexual orientation, and religious background, if the provider is comfortable sharing these details.

Face-to-face counseling is provided at a counselor’s approved premises. We can arrange sessions after hours and on weekends as necessary. The location of a selected counselor is often determined by the preference of the employee. If we do not have a provider in our database who meets the employee’s criteria, we will attempt to recruit a suitable provider or offer telephonic consultation. Every effort will be made to match the individual with a clinician who is listed on their insurance panel in the event additional counseling is desired.

Telephonic Assessment and Referral

Telephonic consultation takes place in a structured format with the individual and EAP professional, pre-agreeing on times for each of the EAP sessions. The option of talking with a Credentialed Employee Assistance Professional (CEAP) by phone, generally appeals to individuals for whom traditional face-to-face counseling is either inconvenient or anxiety provoking.

Provider Credentials

Our credentialing process mirrors the standards for credentialing set forth by the NCQA for primary source verification. The minimum standards for network inclusion are as follows:

• • Possession of a minimum of a master’s degree in a mental health discipline

• • Three years minimum post master’s experience in the direct provision of clinical care

• • Current and unrestricted license as a mental health practitioner at the independent practice level; exceptions may be made for rural, remote locations that are served by providers who are licensed or certified but must be supervised as a condition of licensure or certification; consideration of community standards guides the determination for making an exception

• • Maintenance of professional liability insurance at the level of $1 million per occurrence and $3 million aggregate

• • Attestation/disclosure to the existence of prior sanctions or limitations to license, malpractice claims history, the existence of felony convictions, and the ability to perform the essential functions of an EAP counselor