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Commissioners approve $9,000 for Employee Assistance Program

COLUMBUS—Polk County employees will soon see an added benefit of both mental and physical health assistance. 

The Polk County Board of Commissioners met Monday and approved spending $9,000 a year for a new employee assistance program that will give employees free counseling for an incident. 

County manager Marche Pittman explained that he and commissioner Ray Gasperson recently attended a session with Henderson County, who had two employees die by suicide, ultimately because of what they had seen on the job. 

Pittman said some of the county’s employees see the worst things that some of us never want to see and then cannot un-see. 

“I walked away from it thing of what could we do better,” Pittman said. “If we save one person, it’s worth it.” 

The program, which should begin next month, will provide employees with six counseling sessions per incident with no payment required from the employee. 

Pittman also said the employee does not have to worry about their boss finding out they sought counseling. After the sixth session with a counselor, if the employee is not showing progress, they can go through their health provider and will pick up the deductible from there. Employees have 6 free sessions per year per incident and there is an unlimited number of incidents per year. 

There is also an 800 number for other services, including for legal, financial and identity theft. Employees can also call for prescriptions with the program. 

“We’re talking about $9,000 a year is what it would cost us,” Pittman said. “I think it’s a small amount of money for peace of mind. They are the people we turn to and they need someone to turn to.” 

Commissioners approved moving $9,000 from contingency into the employee wellness line item. 

Commissioner vice chair Tommy Melton said that’s a lot of service for just $9,000 for 250 employees. He asked if the rates will go up based on usage. 

Pittman said he plans to market the service pretty heavily and the county always has the opportunity to shop rates annually. 

Pittman said if the county thinks there is an employee with a substance abuse problem they will refer that employee to the service. He said employees need to be able to seek help without fearing retaliation from their supervisor. County officials will be able to see that an employee used the service, but will not be able to see what the problem was. 

Commissioner chair Myron Yoder said he used to be involved with a fire department and sometimes he could not sleep for nights. 

“This would not be an intrusion of any kind,” Yoder said. “You could pick up the phone and call somebody.” 

Yoder also said the prescription part of the program is also good because employees could call and pick up a prescription without missing work at all. 

Pittman said it is baseline medical services for everybody, which is also a good recruitment tool for the county as well.