Employee Assistance Programme

Our Employee Assistance Service (EAS) is a 24/7 free and confidential in the moment support service designed to assist individuals in dealing more effectively with any personal or work-related problems they might be facing. Where clinically appropriate, our EAS provides up to 6 sessions of short-term, solution focused counselling and referral services, per issue, per year.

The service can be used by an employee, their spouse, civil partner and dependants where the family member can be described as over the age of 18 and residing in the family home.

We offer access to a telephone helpline, available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year. Employees can also reach the service through our wellbeing app/platform via a live chat function, and a request a call back function. Therefore, we can respond to your needs at any time, no matter where you are.

Yes, the number is free phone and open 24/7.

• The freephone number is 1800 814 243.
• Text ‘Hi’ to 087 369 0010 to avail of EAS support on WhatsApp
• Text ‘Hi’ to 087 145 2056 to avail of EAS support on SMS

All calls will be answered by our EAS team and all cases will be handled by one of our experienced Case Managers (all fully trained and qualified counsellors), who will carry out an assessment with each caller to ensure that each person is receiving the specialised assistance that they need.

The assessment will consist of a series of questions so they can understand the issue you are facing, and the severity of it. This will allow them to make an informed and clinical suitable decision regarding your referral.

If your case is suitable for short term counselling, also known as solution-focused therapy, the case manager will link you in with a counsellor to organise your first session. Cases suitable for solution focused therapy are cases where 6 sessions of counselling is likely to lead to a positive outcome. Examples of cases like this would include the following, but are not limited to:

• Mild-moderate emotional distress, manifesting as stress, anxiety or low-level depression.
• Assistance in the promotion of healthier self-care techniques to promote healthier work-life balance and wellbeing.
• Supporting you with deal with challenging life events (i.e. loss, parenting issues/concerns, interpersonal difficulties, work stress)
• Support around marital/relationship/family issues.

If an individual has issues that are identified as requiring long term counselling, they may not be suitable for the EAS services, as major long-term psychological issues and behaviours are unlikely to be resolved and changed within a short time frame. In these cases, we can provide employees with options for getting their psychological needs met in a more appropriate, longer-term setting outside of the EAS, where they can explore their issues in more depth and begin to change long-term patterns of behaviour. It is very important that employees are referred appropriately from the beginning so that they can access the most appropriate form of counselling i.e open ended therapy as soon as possible.

If you have any questions on this our EAS team can help you.

Yes. We have a whole host of online services, through your organisation’s wellbeing platform. We have extensive educational resources such as videos, blogs and eLearning on topics like mental health, self-care, fitness, nutrition and more. We also have live chat and video counselling available through the portal which will provide access to regularly updated blogs and info on our EAS service, while also giving you the option to instantly call the helpline.

No all we may require on the initial contact is confirmation of your company name and some high-level information so we know that you are eligible to access the service.

Yes, you can request video or telephone counselling, whatever suits you best.

On the initial contact, the Case Manager will collect a person’s contact details, discuss the issue they are facing and complete a quick assessment, taking approximately 30 minutes. This is also known as a triage process.

Where appropriate, person may be referred to short term counselling through the EAS following the triage process with the Case Manager.  When a person is referred to counselling through the EAS, they will be provided with up to 6 sessions of counselling, where appropriate.

Yes, our service is based in Ireland. This allows EAS case managers and counsellors have a great knowledge of the geography in Ireland. As such, it will be easier for them to match employees with counsellors by location as well as speciality. If you are an international employee our counsellors will match you with the most appropriate counsellor in your area.

We have an extensive large network of qualified professional EAS counsellors & psychotherapists spread across the 26 counties of the Republic Ireland. We will provide employees with a counsellor within a maximum distance of 30km from their home or workplace and we have the ability to provide face to face counselling within 5 days throughout Ireland. We will always offer locations that are as convenient as possible to an employee.

All services provided through the Spectrum.Life EAS are done so in total confidence. The identity of individuals and personal details will always be protected by the Case Managers and our team of counsellors. This information will never be shared with or reported to the employer or management team or anyone else, without the employee’s clear consent.

Yes, the EAS service is there to answer any questions you may have. No question is too big or small so feel free to reach out to the team 24/7, 365 days of the year.