The Relevance of an Employee Assistance Program to the Treatment of Workplace Depression

Abstract

Employees presenting to an Employee Assistance Program (EAP) who were identified as depressed were compared to employees not identified as depressed on a number of variables collected as part of the clinical record-keeping procedures of an EAP. Results indicated that employees identified as depressed were significantly more impaired in terms of work productivity, work absence and global functioning than employees not identified as depressed. Further, the results showed that there was significant improvement for both groups on these variables after the EAP intervention. However, employees identified as depressed continued to be more impaired at closing on all indicators than employees not identified as depressed. More intensive psychosocial treatment may be required to optimize work functioning among depressed employees.