New USA Health program provides employee counseling
USA Health’s new Employee Assistance Program offers services for employees experiencing personal concerns such as stress, job problems, life changes, anger, substance abuse, parenting issues, relationship issues, family illness, marital problems, anxiety and depression.
Recognizing the increasing importance of wellness for healthcare workers, USA Health has launched an Employee Assistance Program (EAP) to provide counseling services and support for its employees.
EAP offers services for employees experiencing personal concerns such as stress, job problems, life changes, anger, substance abuse, parenting issues, relationship issues, family illness, marital problems, anxiety and depression.
G. Fletcher Eaton, who has more than two decades of experience in the mental health field, is the manager of the program. “A lot of us are really good at helping other people, but we’re not always so good at helping ourselves,” Eaton said. “The pandemic has really brought mental health issues and other things we all deal with to the forefront.”
During the pandemic, healthcare workers in Alabama and across the nation faced tremendous stress as they cared for critically ill patients, many of whom had no family members at their bedside. “In the moment, we may shelve our grief, but before we know it, 10 years have passed, and we haven’t processed any of it,” he said. “The goal of the office is to change the culture so that we process what happens to us in real time.”
Eaton most recently was manager of EAP Services for UF Health in Gainesville, Florida, an academic health system with about 12,000 employees. A Fairhope native, Eaton holds a bachelor’s degree in psychology from the University of Mississippi and master’s degrees in marriage and family counseling and Christian education from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth, Texas.
Eaton said he is excited to return to Alabama, where he says people are open to the importance of wellness. “The administration and staff at USA Health genuinely want to make wellness a priority,” he said.
The EAP offices initially will be based in CWEB behind Children’s & Women’s Hospital. USA Health employees can request an appointment or a referral to a community provider by contacting Eaton at gfeaton@health.southalabama.edu or 251-410-7664. All services are confidential and are provided at no cost to benefits-eligible employees.
