Employee Assistance Program

If you or someone you know has been affected by the stress of a traumatic workplace event, you may request Critical Incident Stress Management (CISM), a comprehensive multi-component approach to crisis intervention.

CISM helps:

• Identify and mitigate traumatic stress symptoms that could occur after involvement or exposure to a critical incident, such as:
  • Death or serious injury to UB community member
  • Active shooter or other large scale acts of violence
  • Physical or sexual assaults
  • Environmental disaster     
    
• Reduce the duration and severity of traumatic stress arising from crisis situations
• Prevent disabling psychological effects and regain adaptive work-life functioning

Get help managing interpersonal problems or workplace disputes involving one or more people in a neutral, professional setting.  Get a peaceful and satisfactory resolution to your problem.

Using mediation services may be able to help you if you are experiencing:

When you need to be out of the workplace for a significant amount of time due to medical, substance abuse, mental health or other personal issues, get confidential assistance from your Employee Assistance (EA) consultant.

• Before leaving the workplace:

Your EA consultant can help you navigate the various areas on campus that will help facilitate your leave, such as: Health Benefits, Employee Relations and/or Accessibility Resources.

• Before returning to the workplace:

Your EA consultant can help with your transition back into the workplace by coordinating a “Return to Work” meeting on your behalf. “Return to Work” meetings provide a safe, confidential and comfortable environment for you and others to talk about your return to the workplace.

Participants in the “Return to Work” meeting are chosen by you and may include your supervisor, Benefits, Employee Relations, Accessibility Resources, your treatment provider (if applicable) and the EA consultant. This meeting gives everyone the opportunity to discuss any circumstances that need to be addressed to ensure a smooth transition back into the workplace, such as job expectations, agreements about any necessary accommodations and ways to continue positive communication among all involved.

Get support from your peers to improve your well-being. Designed to provide emotional, educational and social support through regularly scheduled meetings, support groups help participants develop methods and skills to solve problems. Building social support will help your ability to maintain or improve your overall personal, physical and emotional health while dealing with real life issues.

Attend a training to improve your well-being. Free workshops are offered to all UB employees on each of the UB campuses during the Fall and Spring semesters, and during the summer.  Workshops are led by professionals expert on the topic, and participants are typically highly satisfied with the workshops they attend.  UB employees may attend workshops during their work time, provided that they have received supervisory approval. Suggestions for training topics are always welcome.