The USDA Employee Assistance Program
The work we do at USDA on behalf of the American public is important and rewarding, both personally and professionally, but it also can be difficult, involving a significant amount of stress. We have an Employee Assistance Program (EAP) in place to help you when the pressures of work, home life, or other stressors become overwhelming.
The goal of the EAP is to assist agencies in developing and maintaining a healthy and productive workforce and to empower employees to resolve personal problems that impact or may impact conduct and work performance in the quickest, least restrictive, most convenient and cost-effective manner possible.
The EAP is a short-term assessment and referral service to help you deal with emotional, behavioral and well-being issues that may be affecting your work. The EAP is free of charge and is open to you and your immediate family members. Family members who reside in your household and your dependent children who may be away at school are all eligible for EAP services.
EAP personnel might include:- Licensed/certified counselors who provide mental health counseling and referrals as well as information to resolve personal problems that may impact work performance;
- Licensed attorneys who provide consultation and referral services for a wide range of legal issues including healthcare power of attorney, Living Wills, housing or real estate matters, family law, identity theft, criminal matters, traffic violations, and other legal matters; and
- Qualified financial consultants who can help you with tax information, credit card debt management, debt consolidation, savings and investment strategies, retirement planning, and other financial issues.
- Consultations on ways to assist employees handle job performance issues caused by personal problems, challenges, or behavioral/health issues, including chronic absenteeism and “presenteeism” (when an employee is physically present but mentally/emotionally detached and unproductive);
- Advice for constructively talking to employees regarding job performance, resolving misconduct, and addressing other issues that negatively impact an employee’s ability to successfully do their jobs; and
- Information to develop plans for handling and responding to traumatic events, including counseling services to employees to decrease emotional stress and increase overall employee functioning.
On request, EAP experts might also provide employee orientation about the range of services and how to access them, and they can conduct health promotion and education programs with an emphasis on job performance issues and other problems.
USDA’s EAP services are decentralized and differ from place-to-place. So not all the personnel and services listed above are available everywhere. Please use the following information to verify which specific personnel and services are provided for you by your Agency EAP:
Employees assigned to Rural Development (RD), the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS), and the Office of the Chief Information Officer (OCIO) should contact the Sand Creek Group at 888.243.5744.
Forest Service (FS) personnel should contact Wendy Veney at 703.605.0884 or your Regional Forest Service Office for their specific EAP provider.
ARS personnel in the Mid-West Region and Robert W. Holley Center should contact Liz Parker at 301.504.1387.
All other USDA employees should contact Federal Occupational Health at 800.222.0364.
For additional information, contact Gerry Nagel, USDA EAP Program Manager at 202.720.9010 or gerald.nagel@dm.usda.gov or your EAP Coordinator at http://www.dm.usda.gov/employ/eapcoor.htm