Friday 24 May 2019 1:40pm
Otago staff who require health and well-being advice or counselling can now access Benestar - the leading provider of Employee Assistance Programmes in Australia and New Zealand.
The University of Otago’s Employee Assistance Programme (EAP) provider has been bought by an Australian Company, Benestar.
Benestar, which is the leading provider of Employee Assistance Programmes in Australia and New Zealand, offers free online health and well-being advice at any time as well as the counselling service.
The EAP is a confidential counselling service offered free to staff who work half-time or more at the University.
"It gives people help to move forward. And no-one knows who has accessed it – not your manager, not me."
Occupational Health Nurse Cath Logan says the programme provides a process for employees “when things are going on that affect their mental well-being and they need independent help”.
The totally confidential process gives access to up to three counselling sessions and can be used to assist staff to manage interpersonal relationships, family issues or concerns after a bereavement, plus many other issues that can impact on health and wellbeing. The EAP access to counselling is not time bound - it is per event - and is designed as a brief interventional counselling service. If there is a need to access counselling for one event and then a few months later another event requires some attention then it can be accessed again.
“It gives people help to move forward. And no-one knows who has accessed it – not your manager, not me.”
There are a range of counsellors available through the service, and initial appointments are available within five working days of the first contact.
Now the University is with Benestar, a wide range of online resources are also available and these can be accessed by all staff, regardless of how many hours they work.
Benehub is a health and wellbeing portal, with access to a vast library of health and wellbeing resources anywhere, anytime from your preferred device.
“You just need to create your own login to access the online articles, from the website or on the app on your phone. So it’s a resource available 24/7.”
The EAP information can also be accessed through the Health and Safety section of the Otago website.