Conference Deals With Help for Workers Shaken by Violence in Workplace

What kind of help do you give employees who have seen a co-worker shot at work?

Leaders of employee assistance programs from around the nation will find out beginning Saturday in Anaheim when the Employee Assistance Professionals Assn. Inc. holds its annual conference.

More than 2,000 people are expected to attend the national conference, which runs from Nov. 13 to Nov. 17.

Employee assistance programs grew out of workplace alcoholism programs. But today they also assist employees in dealing with drug abuse, stress, family problems and the like.

Among the topics that will be discussed are violence in the workplace. “Loss of job security, unrelenting pressure to produce more with less, changing cultural environment--a volatile mix of stressed employees and unaware or unsympathetic managements is increasingly leading to violence,” says the association.

EAPs, as they are called, can “read the warning signs and head off catastrophe,” the association said, as well as counsel workers after a violent incident.

Also under discussion: identifying and treating a host of new workplace ailments--such as carpal tunnel syndrome and related stress--before they lead to expensive and messy lawsuits.

Also up for discussion is cultural diversity in the workplace. “Lip-service efforts--such as one-hour cultural sensitivity training--will not hold back the work force issues stemming from a tidal wave of cultural change,” the association said. Among the topics to be covered in this area is counseling Latinos in the workplace.

Then there are the classic employee problems of alcohol and drug abuse. Citing figures from the Corporation Against Drug Abuse, the association says 11.5 million Americans use illegal substances. Two thirds of them are employed, and “most of that number use drugs on the job.”

Another subject is how the Clinton Administration’s plan for national health insurance will affect employee assistance programs.

Speaking on that topic will be Joseph A. Califano Jr., secretary of Health, Education and Welfare in the Carter Administration.

The Employee Assistance Professionals Assn. is based in Arlington, Va., and has 7,000 members.

The conference, at the Disneyland Hotel, is not open to the public.