Thoughts For Employee, Assistance Programs
Counseling service for employees
An Employee Assistance Program is an ideal route to draw ACoAs into the treatment they need. Because people spend a large portion of their lives in the workplace, it is here, surrounded by colleagues who do not necessarily have the personal investment in the working relationship, that ACoA behavior can be perceived and addressed — for the good of both the individual and the company. There are no losers when the ACoA gets the care he or she needs and deserves. For the individual, it can often serve as the deterrent from progressing into alcoholism or other forms of substance abuse, as Cindy tells us: Five years ago, frightened by my own increased drinking, worried about the impact of alcoholism on another generation and supported by my own therapy, I made a decision to stop drinking and to face the personal and family problems related to multi-generational alcoholism which I had avoided and denied. The decision to take charge of my life and then to fulfill the serenity prayer has increasingly contributed to an understanding of my motivations and therefore a lessening of the necessity for me to work out my unresolved conflicts through the work itself…
It can help to quiet what mark called “the inner voice of failure”that sabotages the personal as well as the professional life.
Michael, the manager of an EAP for a large high-tech research company, describes the benefits for the company as well as for the individual.
In almost every case they respond well to counseling… The degree of isolation, support systems, etc., determine the length of treatment. The prognosis for these clients is excellent once they are treated. In other words, when you begin to address the issues of the ACoA in the workplace, you begin to address the $190.7 billion lost in 1980, according to work done by the Research Triangle Institute for the alcohol, Drug Abuse and Mental Health Administration — money lost through lost sales, poor job performance, on-the-job accidents, absence from work, medical costs, and the costs of hiring and training new personal.
But it was the religious counselor who most poignantly describe the benefits of ACoA treatment: God made you. It’s Ok to be you. It’s even Ok to love yourself. In fact, the more you can love yourself, the easier it is for you to help others. This ideal exists in all relationship. It is a workplace goal as well as a personal goal. It is a direction for us all to follow.
Some companies are in a position to offer an educational series to their employees. The components of an educational series on and for adult children of alcoholics could be the following.
Week One: An Overview — Adult Children Of Alcoholics
The first week is designed to include general information pertaining to ACoAs. This seminar introduces the education series and describes the content and focus of the seven following weeks.
OBJECTIVES:
Participants will learn of the cost of alcoholism and related problems to their company.
Participants will become familiar with the research, literature and experiences of the largest population of people affected by alcoholism.
Participants may Identify themselves as belonging to this population.
Participants will have opportunity to ask questions and receive clarification on individual problems and concerns, and assess whether the education will be of further help.
Week Two: The Childhood Experience
This seminar introduces the”family disease” concept. The interpersonal dynamics of the alcoholic family are explained. The leader discusses early perceptions of reality and the coping mechanism CoAs developed for survival.
OBJECTIVES:
Participants will become aware of the progressive processes of the family disease.
Participants will become aware of how these family dynamics can be replayed in the workplace.
Participants become familiarized with how functional family system deals with problem solving, expression of emotions and communication.
Week There: Adaptation to Alcoholism
This seminar focuses on the roles assumed by family members, and how these roles are both functional and dysfunctional in childhood and adulthood. This lecture stresses the need for ACoAs to identify how roles serve as a protective defence from emotional turmoils as well as provide the ACoA with a sense of self based on what they do versus who they are and how they feel. This seminar includes a educational versus unconditional love.
OBJECTIVES:
Participants will become familiarized with various roles assumed in alcoholic families and identify how various roles serve in maintaining survival, reducing stress, and create sense of stability for the CoA.
Participants will discuss the strengths and weaknesses implied in various roles, what the advantages and disadvantages were, and what emotions the repressed.
Participants identify how the alcoholic and co-dependent parents responded conditionally to various role behaviors versus responding unconditionally to the whole child.
Week Four: Adult Traits and Characteristics
Discussion of adult traits and characteristics as determined by researchers. This seminar focuses on problems experienced by ACoAs and how these problems have roots in the family history of Alcoholism. The messages and distorted perceptions internalized throughout childhood in an alcoholic environment are examined.
OBJECTIVES:
Participants will become aware of the manifestations of the employee’s isolation in the workplace. Participants will learn how these internalized overt covert messages interfere with employee’s present functioning. Participants will develop strategies toward change
Week Five: Self Help for ACoAs
This seminar uses a broad based definition of self help to assist the ACoA in utilizing resources to aid in recovery. The traditional programs of self-help such as A.A., Al-Anon and A.C.o.A. are discussed. The participants are also exposed to the help available through education and various community resources. Various forms of therapy are discussed.
OBJECTIVES:
Participants will become aware of the available recovery programs. Participants will utilize a of resources to help with various needs.
Week Six: Intimacy
This seminar will, through lecture, film, discussion and group exercises, show how living with Alcoholism can interfere with the ability to experience intimacy. The goal of this seminar is to define intimacy and discuss the components of health relationship
OBJECTIVES:
Participants will discover how problems of intimacy can affect workplace behavior.
Week Seven: The Recovery Process
The seminar focuses on the recovery process as outlined by Gravitz and Bowden. Needs and problems encountered during various stages of recovery are discussed. The behavioral, cognitive and emotional changes experienced in recovery, and how change occurs is highlighted.
OBJECTIVES:
Understanding recovery as a process,
ACoA Warning Signs: A Checklist for EAPs
Just as it takes time to get to know someone, it takes time to perceive the effects of an undiagnosed CoA on the job. Here are some of the most important manifestations of CoAs acting out on the job:
• Procrastination
•Perfectionism
• Indecisiveness
• Impulsiveness in decision-making
• Inconsistent productivity
• Too many questions
• No questions at all
• Difficulty in accepting compliments
• Constant approval-seeking
• Often working very late
• High absenteeism
• Overinvolvement with other employees' feelings
• Assuming responsibility for other people’s mistakes
• Lack of initiative
• Frequent emotional outbursts
• No display of emotions at all
• Too much discussion of personal life
• No apparent life outside of work
The readers will see that many of the items on this list form pairs. The ACoA will often flip-flop from one extreme to the other — productivity is a case in point.
But it’s important to note that these vary, depending on the nature of the workplace, and that this list is incomplete. Further research is required to determine whether CoAs create stress on the job, how they respond to it when it does occur, and what effect this has on their fellow employees.
Crisis Counseling For AcoAs:
A Checklist for EAPs
1) Referred for job performance problems. Look first for Signs of substance abuse.
2) Absenteeism due to illness. Check for burnout or substance abuse.
3) Problems with peers and supervisors. Look for playing out of alcohol family system.
4) Problems with family. Look for substance abuse or other compulsive behaviors in self, spouse or children. Look for lack of understanding of how to solve the problem.
5) problems with intimacy. Look for fears of abandonment. Look for substance abuse in lover. Look for lover within the organization and the relationship going bad.
— Janet Geringer Woititz please keep reading and comment, follow thank you for your support
