Employee Assistance Programs (EAPs)

Employee assistance programs (EAPs) evolved from the “industrial” or “occupational” alcohol programs (OAPs) of the 1940s that were developed by companies to address alcohol abuse and its impact on the workplace. The first of these programs was developed by Dupont de Nemours and Company from 1941-1944 followed by Kodak in 1945 (Royce and Scratchley, 1989). These  programs were typically staffed by a recovering alcoholic employee working in cooperation with corporate medical departments or a union health clinic and the sole referral source was to the recently formed self-help group Alcoholics Anonymous (AA).   The primary intervention was to “confront the alcoholic’s job performance decline and denial using possible job loss as leverage toward seeking help.”

With time these programs broadened to include other issues that could potentially impact job performance. Worker Assistance Programs (WAPs) emerged in the 1950s when companies such as Consolidated Edison, Standard Oil of New…