The mission of the Employee Service Program is to provide the highest quality professional and confidential employee assistance to state employees and their family members, to promote wellness and to prevent or resolve personal or organizational issues that may interfere with work productivity, home life or behavioral health. We do this by providing confidential, no cost services to classified state employees who may be experiencing work-related problems or personal problems that affect their work. These services are accomplished through the following functions:

• Individual Employee Assistance/Consultation: Work with individual employees face to face or over the telephone to identify and assess problems, engage in short term problem resolution, develop a plan of action, provide pre-counseling assistance if necessary, make referrals for mental health or substance abuse treatment services, and/or make referrals for other state or local community resources.

• Traumatic Incident Stress Management (TISM) Services. Coordinate the statewide TISM team to provide assessment and interventions to assist employees in the aftermath of traumatic workplace incidents such as accidental death, violence, or serious injury at the workplace. The team provides group defusing or debriefing sessions designed to validate and normalize acute stress reactions, and accelerate recovery. The team also refers employees to ESP counseling staff if further assistance is needed.

• Management/Work Unit Consultations. Provide consultation on some of the most common work related problems such as organizational change, job stress, dealing with difficult people, and conflicts with colleagues. Managers may not always have enough information to address the problem, but may recognize that preventive action is needed.

• Supervisory Referrals. Assist Managers and Human Resource personnel in making referrals to ESP to employees who are having work-related, personal, and/or job performance concerns.

• Stress Management: Provide an online Systematic Stress Management Program that teaches employees how to cope more effectively with stress, and is designed to prevent and minimize stress-related difficulties.

• Wellness Seminars: Conduct on-site seminars providing information, support, and resources for reducing stress, dealing with depression, coping with change and transitions, and improving employees' mental health.

• Mental Health Screenings: Provide online confidential, anonymous, self-assessment tools to help employees and family members identify mental health conditions such as depression, alcohol abuse, post-traumatic stress disorder, anxiety, eating disorders and adolescent depression.

• Work/Life Services: Provide online information and resources to assist employees in managing the demands of work and personal life when the need arises. A variety of topics are addressed: family, childcare, eldercare, physical fitness/wellness, mental fitness, financial services, domestic violence, and legal services.