EAP and Anger Management

Many companies and governmental agencies throughout the nation claim to offer anger management assessments, referrals and counseling as an employee benefit through their employee assistance programs. Unfortunately, most employee assistance professionals have no training or experience in anger management.
Recently, a key member of the Employee Assistance Program Staff of the United States House of Representatives completed certification from Anderson & Anderson in anger management facilitation. This EAP manager explained that she is professionally trained at the Masters level in Clinical Social Work and substance abuse counseling. She acknowledged that she had no training in anger management and was not sure what anger management really is. Furthermore, she was unaware of appropriate referral resources for clients in need of anger management. She and her staff were routinely referring clients to mental health providers.
The highest level of professional certification in the employee assistance profession is the Certified Employee Assistance Professional. I am a CEAP with over thirty years of experience. I can say with certainty that there is neither a requirement nor any mention of anger on the CEAP test relative to anger or anger management. In spite of this, organizations are relying on Employee Assistance Providers to offer assistance in anger management as an employee benefit.
The information below is taken directly from the website of Employee Assistance Professional Association: http://www.eapassn.org/public/pages/index.cfm?pageid=507.
What is employee assistance?
Employee Assistance is the work organization's resource that utilizes specific core technologies to enhance employee and workplace effectiveness through prevention, identification, and resolution of personal and productivity issues.
What is an employee assistance program (EAP)?
An employee assistance program (EAP) is a worksite-based program designed to assist (1) work organizations in addressing productivity issues and (2) "employee clients" in identifying and resolving personal concerns, including, but not limited to, health, marital, family, financial, alcohol, drug, legal, emotional, stress, or other personal issues that may affect job performance.
EAP Core Technology
The employee assistance program Core Technology (EAP Core Technology) represents the essential components of the employee assistance profession. These components combine to create a unique approach to addressing work organization productivity issues and "employee client" personal concerns affecting job performance and ability to perform on the job. The EAP Core Technology consists of the following:
(1) Consultation with, training of, and assistance to work organization leadership (managers, supervisors, and union stewards) seeking to manage the troubled employee, enhance the work environment, and improve employee job performance, and outreach to and education of employees and their family members about availability of EAP services;
(2) Confidential and timely problem identification/assessment services for employee clients with personal concerns that may affect job performance;
(3) Use of constructive confrontation, motivation, and short-term intervention with employee clients to address problems that affect job performance;
(4) Referral of employee clients for diagnosis, treatment, and assistance, plus case monitoring and follow-up services;
(5) Consultation to work organizations in establishing and maintaining effective relations with treatment and other service providers and in managing provider contracts;
(6) Consultation to work organizations to encourage availability of, and employee access to, health benefits covering medical and behavioral problems, including but not limited to alcoholism, drug abuse, and mental and emotional disorders; and
(7) Identification of the effects of EA services on the work organization and individual job performance.
A careful reading of the core technology and description of an Employee Assistance Program above clearly shows that anger or anger management is never mentioned. Yet anger management "counseling and referrals" are offered daily throughout the nation by EAPs. At the very least, this appears unethical, unprofessional or even fraudulent.
There is nothing in the core technology to assure that EAP professionals have any exposure whatsoever to anger management. Anger is not a mental health issue as determined by the American Psychiatric Association. Specifically, the APA maintains that anger is not a pathological condition and is therefore not listed in the Diagnostic And Statistical Manual of Nervous and Mental Disorders. Given this information, it is clear that mental health professionals, including Employee Assistance Professionals, have no expertise in anger management.
Anger management referrals are on the rise
Bullying workers may say they don't push other people around, but ComPsych Corp., an employment assistance program, says it has had an uptick in anger management referrals due to bullying or intimidating behavior.
The Chicago firm polled 1,000 employees from US firms around the country between March and April. Of those, only 3 percent described themselves as intimidators. But the company said that when it reviewed its caseload, it found that 90 percent of the anger management cases it receives yearly stemmed from clients' concerns about bullying behavior.
The company, which examined how employees resolve conflicts in the workplace, said 10 percent of the respondents fell into the following groups: negotiators who use bargaining tactics to ease tensions and find common ground; communicators who rely on their persuasive abilities; avoiders who shy away from conflict; or procrastinators who tend to wait before diving in and resolving a problem with a co- worker. According to the company, people who bully colleagues or subordinates are more likely to demonstrate poor restraint, including angry outbursts or abusive language at work. In fact, these are the co- workers who get their way by forcing their peers to submit.
Conclusions
All Employee Assistance Professional should be trained and certified as anger management facilitators. This will assure that they are capable of assessing the needs of employees in need of assistance in managing anger, stress, improving communication and increasing emotional intelligence. Human Resource Managers and Risk Management Consultants should have a minimum of two or four hour introduction to anger management assessment and referrals.
Health and mental health professionals should be offered elective courses in anger management from competent, experience facilitators of anger management.
There should and will be a coordinated national campaign initiated by the American Association of Anger Management Providers to inform the public of the importance and scope of anger management practice nationwide.
George Anderson, MSW, BCD, CAMF, CEAP Diplomate, American Association of Anger Management Providers Anderson & Anderson(R), The Trusted Name in Anger Management http://www.andersonservices.com/ http://www.aaamp.org http://www.linkedin.com/in/geoanderson www.anger-management-resources.org

For Fathers and those who love them

PUBLIC ANNONCEMENT: The Tehachapi Fathers' Rights Group is a new divisionof Tehachapi Court Services. Please go to thewebsite's HOME PAGE and review all the servicesprovided, in case it's relevant to a family member orloved one -- www.tehachapicourtservices.comThe site also provides referral to a positivesolutions organization specializing in angermanagement and stress from Fathers dealing with anoften-times, "fledgling system" for Fathers' rights. The anger management organization also receivesreferrals through the Kern County Superior Court.As a result of particularly Tehachapi being a smalltown, we try very hard to focus on, and provide thekind of relevant, affordable resources that can make apositive difference in real lives. Please share this information with Fathers who may bewrestling with the issues described at the website.TEHACHAPI FATHERS' RIGHTS GROUPA DIVISION OF TEHACHAPI COURT SERVICES661-822-3298

Humans Crave Violence Like Sex

New research on mice shows the brain processes aggressive behavior as it does other rewards. Mice sought violence, in fact, picking fights for no apparent reason other than the rewarding feeling.
The mouse brain is thought to be analogous to the human brain in this study, which could shed light on our fascination with brutal sports as well as our own penchant for the classic bar brawl.
In fact, the researcher say, humans seem to crave violence just like they do sex, food or drugs.
Love to fight
Scientists have known that mice and other animals are drawn to fights. Until now, they didn't know how the brain was involved.
The new study, detailed online this week in the journal Psychopharmacology, reveals the same clusters of brain cells involved in other rewards are also behind the craving for violence.
"Aggression occurs among virtually all vertebrates and is necessary to get and keep important resources such as mates, territory and food," said study team member Craig Kennedy, professor of special education and pediatrics at Vanderbilt University in Tennessee. "We have found that the reward pathway in the brain becomes engaged in response to an aggressive event and that dopamine is involved."
Mouse brawl
For the experiments, the researchers placed a pair of mice, one male and one female, in a cage. Then, the female was removed and a so-called male intruder mouse entered the cage. That triggered aggressive behavior in the resident male. The tell-tale signs of aggression included tail rattle, an aggressive sideways stance, boxing and biting.
After the initial scuffle ended, the resident male mouse was trained to nose-poke a target to get the intruder to return. Results showed the home mouse consistently poked the target and fought with the introduced mouse, indicating, the researchers say, that the aggressive encounter was seen as a reward.
"We learned from these experiments that an individual will intentionally seek out an aggressive encounter solely because they experience a rewarding sensation from it," Kennedy said.
To figure out whether the brain's reward pathway was involved, the scientists treated the home mice with a drug to block dopamine in certain parts of the brain known to be involved in rewards like food and drugs.
The treated mice were less likely to instigate the intruder's entry. “This shows for the first time that aggression, on its own, is motivating, and that the well-known positive reinforcer dopamine plays a critical role," Kennedy said.
Human violence
Kennedy explained that the experiments have implications for humans. The reward pathway in the brains of humans and mice are very similar, he said.
"Aggression is highly conserved in vertebrates in general and particularly in mammals," Kennedy told LiveScience. "Almost all mammals are aggressive in some way or another."
He added, "It serves a really useful evolutionary role probably, which is you defend territory; you defend your mate; if you're a female, you defend your offspring."
Even though it served a purpose for other animals, in modern human societies, Kennedy said, a propensity toward aggression is not beneficial and can be a problem. Top 10 Mysteries of the Mind 10 Things You Didn't Know About You Life's Little Mysteries Original Story: Humans Crave Violence Just Like Sex
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Happy New Year!!!

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Karina Narduzzi B.A., C.A.M.F.
info@positivesolutions.org
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