Employee assistance program? We have one available through Northwestern mutual for a 3-visit option and I am thinking about trying it out. Anyone have something like this and use it? How did it work out?
We do. I used it through a prior job, and saw a local therapist for counseling for maybe 3-4 visits. I thought it was good. I did not use it through my current work for counseling because I gone to someone through my insurance.
So for counseling I think it is good, and my sister hired a lawyer through their legal arm with her employer, and that went well. I think counselors and lawyers in general are contractors and not employed by the EAP. Some exceptions here maybe.
I tried to work with the research/ appointments, etc arm of the EAP during my dad's crisis in South America, and they did not return any phone calls or emails. This was after I sat through a zoom presentation where they bragged about this service, so I was very disappointed in that area of the service, but I do think it is different from the counselor section. The service they bragged about was that they would basically do anything for you, like research how to find 20 flamingos for a lawn party, and nothing was too small for them, so why they wouldn't help in a legit crisis was beyond me. I don't even know if anyone was manning the voicemails or emails.
I have. The counselor I got was meh, but it was during the pandemic when everyone was really full and hard to get into see. And she did help, I just never felt like I meshed well with her. I also looked for one that took my insurance, so that was a nice feature/perk of the EAP.
Post by supertrooper1 on Nov 30, 2022 12:13:37 GMT -5
I have used EAP through the Federal Government. The first counselor was terrible, so I asked for a different one and she was great. There are so many different resources for various life stages, like elderly care tips, child care tips, financial tips, etc.
I've used mine for a few things. I found my therapist through the EAP. I made sure that the people I searched in the EAP also took my insurance so that I could continue if I liked her. Here I am, still seeing her 4 years later....
I've also used some of the legal info and forms for research. It's not legal services, but it has examples of simple legal documents. So beau and I looked up what a pre-nup looks like, or what an agreement would look like if we bought a house jointly but aren't married.
Ours even includes free identify theft monitoring so I'm signed up for that too.
Post by sillygoosegirl on Dec 13, 2022 3:07:01 GMT -5
I've called them a few times. Seems like they prefer to refer you to someone you can see in person, which is what they did for me a couple times. The getting referred out wasn't as seemless or fast a process as I'd been led to expect, but did work the time I made the effort to follow up. Not so much the time I didn't. It was, however, kind of a bummer to go the 3 sessions to someone who then wasn't in network with my health insurance... but after 3 sessions I didn't really feel like I needed to go back either, so it was okay.
The time I had an actual immediate emergency, they were super helpful over the phone.