Joy Adan grew up in a family where talking about feelings "wasn't a done thing".
"You just keep carrying on and I found that really challenging, especially when I was going through my own mental health issues," Adan tells ABC RN's This Working Life.
It was an attitude she had to rethink when she joined the workforce.
"I found there was so much stigma around asking for that type of help. Or even just talking about how difficult things are. It was really an eye-opening thing for me to have colleagues encourage me to seek help."
The communications consultant sought help through her company's Employee Assistance Program (EAP), and she says it was a very positive experience.
Offered by many organisations, EAPs give employees going through challenging times the opportunity to speak to a psychologist, therapist or counsellor. Usually the organisation pays for a set number of sessions.
But Joy knows that not everyone has a positive experience with these programs, particularly when there are concerns around privacy. She remembers a friend who was reluctant to access their EAP.
"She said it was mainly because she thought it would be used against her," Joy says.
"[For example] if she was ever going to go for a promotion, they would be looking at whether or not she had needed to seek support and actually count that against her," she says.
In some circumstances, her friend's concerns may be valid.
Several years ago, Laura was working for a government department leading a team of over 15 staff.
"I had new leadership come in and [I] was under instruction to let some of the staff go in my team, and there were staff going in other teams," she says.
As a manager, she witnessed HR openly discuss which staff had accessed EAP through that process.
Consequently, Laura didn't feel safe accessing her Employee Assistance Program when she needed it and she went to a private counsellor instead.
"It was a very toxic work culture, and I was bullied in there, and was also offered EAP," she says.
"But knowing what had happened to other staff, and then being asked for my identification was so uncomfortable, that I ended up not using the EAP.
"I ended up trying to take stress leave, which itself became quite an ordeal, then having to provide medical records.
"And it was so stressful that I ended up resigning," she says.
Complete anonymity?
Not all companies offer EAPs to their employees and there are still many workplaces in Australia that don't have a program.
It's more prevalent in big organisations or white-collar jobs, lawyer Marguerite Picard says.
"For most employers these days, it is seen as something that's a healthy thing to provide, partly in compliance with occupational health and safety," she says.
But she understands the apprehension that some employees have about EAPs and confidentiality.
It is why she set up Support for Lawyers, an EAP for her peers.
"There are two main concerns: one is that the therapist will feed back information to the employer — but therapists work under very strict codes of conduct so employees shouldn't worry about this," she says.
"The other concern though, is that employers will find out who is accessing the services because of the way the organisation has set up access to the EAP. Many workplaces require you to go through HR, which means you're obviously not anonymous.
"I know that from my own experience, that if you access the EAP via HR, or via your manager, it is known within the workplace to a degree.
"And that's the thing that lawyers fear .... [it's] the fear that lawyers have if they are seen not to be well."
Her EAP avoids the need for employees to contact HR or a manager when booking sessions. Instead, they use a universal code.
How could they work better?
Clinical psychologist Jo Mitchell co-founded the Melbourne psychology practice The Mind Room a decade ago. She has witnessed privacy issues with EAPs firsthand.
"When we are talking to businesses, sometimes we have requests that would contravene the confidentiality of the service," Mitchell says.
Often they have to educate businesses on what's acceptable.
She explains that they're able to give businesses data on the number of people accessing their services, but they cannot give out any information that would identify who is using it.
"Some of them think, hey because I'm paying for this, I now have some kind of right of access to people's information. But that is 100 per cent not the case," she says.
Mitchell began offering EAPs to businesses through her practice three years ago. She admits that she was hesitant to offer it at first as she wasn't a fan of the usual EAP business model.
"I think it was more driven by a business need than an employee need, and a bit of a tick box [exercise]," Mitchell says.
The three EAP sessions usually offered to employees isn't always the best approach.
Many people won't use the sessions offered, she adds, while other employees might need more than three to work through their problems effectively.
"Why not have higher limits, so that people can actually do some good work with the psychologist to get them started, because three sessions is really very little."
She also notes that there are different levels of professional support offered.
"You can have absolutely fantastic non-psychology trained support, but … you didn't really know what you might be getting," she says.
However, the benefit with EAPs is that they can provide speedier access to mental health services, she says.
Waiting list for psychologists are currently very long, so having access via an EAP can be helpful.
"People are waiting a really, really long time to get in to see someone," she says.
"So if your company has an arrangement with an EAP service, then that's amazing. That gives you an advantage."
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