FOH EAP Studies Telehealth

The FOH EAP studied counseling by telephone using the following process:

The EAP developed structured guidelines for telephone counseling, including client appropriateness criteria (e.g., mobility problems, remote geographical location) and criteria where telephone counseling was not indicated (e.g., client risk factors).

The EAP offered telephone counseling to those who both met the guidelines criteria and who chose to receive telephone counseling instead of face-to-face counseling.

The EAP evaluated the results of clients receiving telephone counseling compared with those receiving face-to-face counseling.

Findings

We found that those clients receiving telephone counseling had comparable results to those receiving face-to-face counseling on the following measures:

Client clinical outcomes and functioning
Client productivity outcomes (e.g., absenteeism and presenteeism)
Client satisfaction with the counseling

Conclusions

After this careful study, the FOH EAP concluded that:

The option of providing counseling telephonically resulted in the provision of services to persons who otherwise might not attend face-to-face sessions (e.g., medical mobility problems, client scheduling problems, clients concerned about being seen going to the counselor), thereby reaching more people.
Clients who were appropriate for and who chose telephonic counseling were very satisfied with the services received. They reported comparable improvement to the face-to-face group in functioning and workplace productivity after receiving the counseling.

Click Here to review FOH’s “Implementation and Evaluation of Formal Telephone Counseling Protocol in an Employee Assistance Program” featured in the Employee Assistance Quarterly.