April 6, 2006

A Little Help for Our Friends

GW’s Faculty/Employee Assistance Program

BY THOMAS KOHOUT

Problems are like luggage, people carry them wherever they go. If it’s stress in the workplace that’s the issue, it’s bound to hitch a ride home and stir things up. And personal problems — whether coping with loss, overcoming an eating disorder, or facing a substance abuse problem — are sure to make their presence known in the office evironment eventually. Worse, such problems often leave a person feeling isolated; uncertain how to get back on track and afraid to ask for help for fear of the potential ramifications. Fortunately, members of The George Washington University community have a free and discreet place to turn for help with a variety of problems, GW’s Faculty Employee Assistance Program (FE/AP).

“Complete confidentiality is one of the most important things I offer,” says Dr. Lee Smith, director of GW’s FE/AP, about the counseling and referral service. “The community needs to remember that we’re here and it works.”

GW is one of many thousands of companies and universities that offers a FE/AP as a benefit. According to Smith, it’s a program that offers as much value for the University as it does for the employees.

“The University gets better employees because they get healthier employees,” explains Smith. “Losing employees is not cheap, in terms of the employee’s knowledge, the investment in training, and the impact on morale. You can’t compare the cost of losing valued employees.”

Smith believes having the assistance program is important to the community, not just for the people it helps, but also for the positive message it sends to the members of the faculty and staff. “It says, rather than just a collection of interchangeable cogs, they are valued,” Smith maintains, “and the University is willing to do what it takes to help them work through their problems and remain productive members of the University community.”

Since she launched GW’s program in 1987, Smith has helped University community members overcome a range of concerns including family dilemmas such as troubled marriages, divorce, death, illness, and problems with children or parents; financial troubles; behavioral problems like substance abuse, compulsive gambling, and eating disorders; workplace issues such as on-the-job stress and problems with co-workers; as well as emotional distress.

“I’ve helped people through anything that a person could possibly be concerned about,” Smith says. Looking for a therapist in the Yellow Pages, insists Smith, is not the most effective way to find a good, professional person to help with a problem whether it’s depression, substance abuse, gambling, eating disorders, or some other problem. It’s one more reason that having a counseling service on campus is such a benefit to the University community.

“It’s hard enough to come to grips with your problem and seek help, let alone to have to search for the right person,” she says. Instead, Smith is right here on the Foggy Bottom Campus and all an employee has to do is pick up the phone and make a call. “It’s good that people feel they can come and this is a safe place on campus where they can talk about whatever they’re concerned about. They can talk honestly and frankly and not be concerned about confidentiality.”

Smith provides short-term counseling, and added that often merely identifying a problem or airing concerns is all that’s needed. She explains that having some time for self-reflection with an unbiased audience to listen is often all the therapy a person needs, and that’s exactly what GW’s FE/AP is here for.

If short-term counseling isn’t the appropriate remedy, Smith will refer faculty or staff to whatever specialized services, centers, or agencies are most suitable. With more than 20 years of clinical, research and teaching experience, Smith is acquainted with a host of resources in the metropolitan area including psychiatrists and psychologists, rehabilitation centers and in- and out-patient services, and she is adept at matching the best resource to her client’s needs.

The most crucial step in the healing process, however, is picking up the phone and making an appointment. After that, Smith is there to help identify problems and determine a course of action.

For more information about GW’s FEAP, or to make an appointment, employees may call 676-2002.

Send feedback to: bygeorge@gwu.edu