Information Archive
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Employee Questions
The EAP offers a comprehensive suite of wellness services that are designed to support your behavioral health, work/life balance, and all eight dimensions of your wellbeing. These include free and confidential counseling services, legal and financial benefits including Medicare and social security coaching, wellness coaching, work/life referral services, and a robust online resource library. We also offer smoking cessation and parenting coaching services. Please click here for more detail on these services or call us at 1-800-873-7138 to learn more about your company’s specific service details.
Common themes that are addressed include problems in living, relationships, work/career, legal/financial stressors, plus mental health and substance use diagnoses. There is no one way to approach therapy. Some people want to focus on the issue at hand, get some coping skills to manage it, and be done. Others would like to address past issues that may be getting in the way of moving forward or contributing to current unhealthy patterns. It may be that you attend therapy for a solution focused approach to a problem and return to therapy months or years later to work through chronic unhealthy patterns. Everyone’s approach is unique to them. Many issues can be addressed in a session limited model, however more complex situations will need further treatment outside of the EAP.
MINES is available seven (7) days a week, 24 hours per day to respond to emergencies. MINES is always on call to answer emergencies. The MINES counselor or coach will provide the assistance required to stabilize emergency situations. These emergency services, after hours and during business hours, are accessed through our main phone number, that is, 303-832-1068 or 800-873-7138.
At this time, you can utilize our website to access listing of PPO Providers. For listing of EAP providers, please contact our main number (800-873-7138) so we can work with you to locate a provider that meets your needs. By calling us to discuss your request around an EAP provider, this allows us to initiate a process where we can contact providers on your behalf to find ones that meet your needs as well as having openings if you would prefer vs. just sending you a list of providers.
Yes. you have a choice of providers in our EAP network. However, if you request an outside the network provider MINES will work with the provider to see if they are willing to do a single case agreement or are willing to join our network. We cannot guarantee they will join our network. In that case you will need to select an in-network provider. In addition, some individuals might have specific preferences or specialties when looking for a provider and MINES will do their best to honor those requests although MINES cannot guarantee this.
Yes. All counseling services are confidential within the limits of state and federal law as well as within the limits of the ethical code of any of the counseling professions.
About 5 business days on average for face-to-face counseling services. Telehealth and digital counseling may be faster. If you have emergent needs, please call our intake staff at 1-800-873-7138 and our team will help you find the fastest possible help.
Typically, anyone living in your household is covered by the EAP, which may include family or roommates. Contact MINES for details or exclusions on your specific plan. Some plans only cover the employee and not the household members.
If your EAP services are a “per life situation”, you may use EAP sessions for each separate and distinct life situation that occurs in your life. The number of EAP sessions is dependent on your organization’s specific plan design. Conditions and needs that arise from the initial course of treatment should be seen as ongoing counseling and do not constitute a new life situation. A MINES case manager will help you access your insurance under such circumstances if you like.
Yes. If you are seeing an affiliate provider through our network, please check with them to see if they can accommodate your needs. Please make sure to inform your provider of this need at the time you make your appointment, so they can ensure that everything is in place to make your visit as comfortable as possible.
It’s important to understand what it is that you are looking for. Psychiatrists and psychiatric nurse practitioners are licensed to prescribe psychiatric medications; this is a service that would need to go through your insurance plan. Psychologists perform psychological testing, which would also need to go through your insurance plans. Psychologists, Licensed Clinical Social Workers (LCSW), Licensed Professional Counselors (LPC), and Licensed Marriage and Family Counselors (LMFT) provide psychotherapy. Licensed Substance Abuse Counselors (LAC) is a master’s level clinician who can provide specific therapy for substance abuse as can any of the previous therapist categories who are trained in substance use disorder treatment.
MINES offers a variety of options to see a therapist. Most therapists offer face-to-face and telehealth options within their private practice. We also offer telephonic, video, and a digital messaged-based counseling service in all 50 states.
Don’t be discouraged! Providers are in sessions throughout most of their day. They might return phone calls during a certain time. You also might want to try to email the provider as well. One thing to remember when leaving a voicemail for a provider is to speak slowly to provide your name and number. Also, make sure that your voicemail identifies who you are and ensure that the voicemail is not full. MINES is also happy to outreach the providers on your behalf to verify their availability to see you. If you do have difficulty with a provider not calling you back, please outreach us.
When determining if a therapist will be a good fit, it is important to think about what you are wanting to get out of therapy. Of course, “clicking” with a therapist is also partially just having a good feeling and getting along with that person. When calling for a screening, you can ask what modalities a therapist uses and make sure they explain each one so you can understand and decide if it is something you would benefit from.
- What type of training do you have? What license(s)/training do you have to be a therapist?
- How long have you worked in this field?
- What are your areas of specialty?
- What are your treatment approaches and philosophy?
- In working with a patient or client, do you tend to be more directive or more like a consultant to the patient or client?
- Do you tend to lead the session or follow my lead?
- How will we assess my progress?
- What types of things would you expect me to do between sessions, if anything?
- My problem is _______. How would you go about treating that?
- Could you understand my perspective as a _______? (This could be based on gender, culture, race, ethnicity, etc)
After the first session, you can expect the therapist to help shed light on your concerns/life situation, encourage you to dig deep into the root of the issue, and provide you with some helpful skills for managing any symptoms you are experiencing. It is important to note that therapy is not a “quick fix” and will require work on your part. In general, you are in therapy for “one hour” (45-50-minute therapy hour) as needed in terms of frequency; what you do throughout the time between sessions will have the greatest impact on your success.
In counseling, feeling comfortable with your counselor is essential to the process. Most of the time clients feel comfortable with their counselor or coach but in those situations where you do not, you simply need to contact MINES and request a new counselor or coach. We will not count the session against your total available for the session used in seeing the initial counselor.
Your EAP benefit is a separate benefit offered to you through a contract your organization has established with MINES. The EAP is built upon the premise that when people can readily access services, and address problems early, they are more likely able to solve problems. For complex mental health and substance use disorders, insurance will need to be utilized as the treatment exceeds the sessions allowed in an EAP. The EAP can also address many issues that are not normally covered by insurance benefits (e.g., marital counseling). With the EAP, the service is free.
You either pay out of pocket or use your insurance.
For some EAP clients, MINES is not only the employee assistance program but is also responsible for managing your psychiatric and substance abuse benefits through your insurance or managed care. It will be indicated on your insurance card or in your benefits booklet if you need to contact MINES before starting psychiatric or substance abuse care.
Be direct and honest with your therapist. It’s encouraged to give them feedback, like “your recommendations aren’t helpful, and here is why…”. It’s important to share any negative feelings or experiences as this helps strengthen the therapeutic relationship and can make therapy more effective in the long run. On the other hand, if the therapist is not open to feedback, you may be better off finding a new therapist. If you have tried to address this with the provider and/or this does not seem like a good fit for you, please contact MINES main number at 800-873-7138.
Supervisor/Leadership Questions
The EAP is a potentially invaluable resource to the manager/supervisor who is facing difficult employee situations. The EAP is available to consult on how to approach the employee with whom you are experiencing difficulties and provide coaching where desired, as well as how the EAP may be able to support the manager/supervisor in their work with the employee. These consultations are completely confidential, and the manager/supervisor maintains their autonomy in determining whether the advice they receive is helpful in their setting or not. Please click here for more detail on these services or call your MINES account manager or our general line at 1-800-873-7138 to learn more about your company’s specific service details.
Many organizations have as a part of their EAP services a referral process which is part of the employer’s progressive disciplinary procedure. When an employee is having performance problems, it can be a function of a variety of issues. The manager/supervisor may work with the employee to address the work-based issues and refer the employee to the EAP as an additional resource in resolving the work-related difficulties. Referral to the EAP does not excuse the employee from performing their job up to the employer’s standards.
Many of MINES clients are not native English speaking. We have resources and providers who can work with non-native English-speaking clients. MINES utilizes interpreter services that can accommodate over 240 languages.
No supervisor should attempt to medically or psychiatrically diagnose an employee who is experiencing performance problems but should meet with the employee to discuss their performance problems and attempt to resolve those difficulties. As part of that process, the supervisor should offer the EAP to the individual for assistance in determining solutions to help the employee perform at the level the employer expects. The supervisor will continue to do what they can to assist the employee in the workplace and monitor their performance as they always have. An employee’s involvement with the EAP does not excuse them from completing the requirements of their job.
MINES does Organizational Development, Team Building, Leadership Development, and Succession Planning. In addition, MINES functions as an extension of Human Resources. We offer Human Resources investigations for issues that HR does not want to handle in-house. MINES provides Critical Incident Stress Management services for workplace trauma or deaths of beloved employees. Please click here to see more details about our organizational development services, click here to access our full training catalogs, and finally click here for more details on our critical incident support services.
As your EAP, MINES is already familiar with your organization and your needs and is in a ready position to apply this experience to the unique dimensions of your workplace. Also, as a psychology firm, MINES is uniquely qualified to apply psychological principles and techniques to today’s complex business environment.
In the event of a tragedy, traumatic incident, death, or other critical or disruptive event, MINES EAP is an important resource for workplace support. MINES is able to provide on-site Counseling Support Services (Critical Incident Support Services). You may call and speak with an Account Manager for consultation, or questions at any point at: 1.800.873.7138. Please call your MINES account manager or our main line at 1-800-873-7138 for more detail on services and pricing.
For questions regarding any of MINES’ services or anything else we can help with, please contact MINES and Associates at 1-800-873-7138 or Email Us and a MINES Team member will be happy to assist you.
