Frequently Asked Questions – Employee Assistance Program

The EAP is a voluntary and confidential service, to help employees and in their family members with concerns that affect their personal well-being and/or work performance. Visit: EAS Programs for additional information.

EAP services are offered to employees and their family members (including survivors of a deceased employee), exempt staff in Ministers’ Offices, employees who have been laid off, retirees, casual employees, contractual employees, agency personnel, students, seasonal employees and Governor in Council appointments.

Eligible dependents and family members include:

• Spouse or common-law spouse
• Unmarried children (including adopted children, step-children or foster children) who are:
• Under 21 years of age
• Between 21 and 25 years of age and in full-time attendance at school
• 21 years of age or over who are wholly dependent because of physical or mental impairment, if the impairment existed prior to the child's reaching age 21, or commenced while the child was covered as a student over age 21.

• 24-Hours / 7 Days a Week, 1-800 bilingual crisis and referral centre
• Advisory Services
• Information / Awareness sessions
• Critical Incident Management Services
• Grief and loss support following an employee suicide
• COVID-19 Mental Health Response Team

EAP can help employees at all levels and their family members with the following:

• Marital and family problems
• Interpersonal relations
• Personal and emotional issues
• Stress and burn-out
• Work-related (employees and managers) issues
• Alcohol, drugs and prescription drugs addiction
• Critical incident stress
• Conflict at work or home
• Grief, etc…

EAP counsellors are available 24-Hours / 7 Days a Week by calling the Bilingual Crisis and Referral centre (Telephone Service at 1-800-268-7708 / Telephone Services for the Hearing Impaired (TDD) 1-800-567-5803).

If you have specific needs such as a counsellor with experience with gender identity, the LGBTQ2S+ community, visible minorities, religion or other, do not hesitate to discuss these when you contact a counsellor at the Crisis and Referral Centre, the EAP will do its best to match a client with a mental health professional who has experience with or identifies with one of these groups.

During this unprecedented time, please note that EAP is experiencing a high volume of calls. If you do not get through on your first attempt, please try again as toll-free lines across telecom carriers may be experiencing network congestion.

After the employee or their family member contacts the EAP, they can expect a call back from a counsellor in their area within 48 hours to schedule an appointment. An appointment will be offered within the next 5 business days.

Each employee and immediate family members can receive up to a maximum of eight (8) counselling hours per issue if the issue expected to be resolved within the EAP short-term mandate, as assessed by the mental health professional. The number of sessions will vary depending on the nature, the severity and urgency of the problem, whether it is a short-term or long-term issues and will be determined in consultation with the Case Management Team.

E-counselling is now available by request to EAP at 1-800-268-7708 or, for persons with a hearing impairment, at 1-800-567-5803. The counsellor will ask some questions to help determine whether e-counselling is the right option, and will refer accordingly.

Yes. Professional counsellors are bound by their code of ethics to guarantee confidentiality.

Some counsellors are available during off hours (weekends and evenings). If an Employee, Manager or a family member cannot leave during their regular working hours they can advise the EAP counsellor during their initial contact their preference for appointments outside their regular work day.

Information session are free and usually last about 1 hour. Typically, 15 to 25 people attend a session, either in-person or via teleconference. They include:

• Descriptions and benefits of the EAP
• How to access and use the EAP
• Who can access the EAP
• What happens when a user calls the toll-free number
• Information about our professionals
• Quality Assurance and confidentiality

Managers can request an Information/Awareness Session via email at caroline.fortin2@canada.ca. They should indicate their name, their Branch or Region and preferred session dates.

Management shall make every reasonable effort to allow an employee to access EAP services when requested. To ensure confidentiality, the employee is not required to provide any additional information other than requesting time to access EAP services. Such time will be considered time work and as such, no leave inputs are required.

If the employee prefers to keep their use of EAP services confidential, i.e. they do not want to inform their manager, but want to access EAP services during working hours, the employee will be required to request leave pursuant to their collective agreement (e.g. annual, personal, etc.).

Advisory services are soft skills/advice/coaching to provide guidance for situations that are unusual, exceptional or outside the realm of regular duties. These services are available 24-Hours / 7 Days a week. Call the Bilingual Crisis and Referral centre at 1-800-268-7708 (Telephone Service for the Hearing Impaired (TDD)) 1-800-567-5803. Visit: EAS Programs for additional information.

A critical event is a situation on the work site or in the line of duty, that causes employees to experience unusually strong emotional reactions, either at the scene of the event or later, which prevent them from fulfilling their normal functions. Visit: EAS Programs for additional information.

If a critical incident occurs in the work place or in the exercise of its functions, the following Stress Management services are offered on demand:

• One-on-one trauma support sessions in the privacy of a counsellor’s office off site.
• 24-Hours / 7 Days a Week, by calling Bilingual Crisis and Referral centre 1-800-268-7708 (Telephone Service for the Hearing Impaired (TDD)) 1-800-567-5803.
• A clinical assessment (by telephone) and an appropriate on-site intervention of up to 3 hours by one counsellor per incident following a traumatic/critical incident.

If a critical incident occurs outside of the workplace or beyond the exercise of its functions, Stress Management services can also be offered (cost of an on-site intervention will be paid by the manager making the request on a cost-recovery basis).

Support for grief and loss after losing an employee to suicide is offered through the EAP. A group session on grief and loss is provided by a mental health professional for a maximum of 3 hours to support colleagues of an employee who died by suicide. Contact NA-PAE_EAP-GD for additional information.

EAS COVID-19 Mental Health Response Team provide advice to organizations, help develop comprehensive intervention plans and coordinate internal and external mental health related services. To learn more, contact Jeremy Ames, Director, COVID-19 Mental Health Response Team, by phone at 613-851-6304 or e-mail: Jeremy Ames.

Specialized Organizational Services are workshops, coaching services, leadership dialogues, counselling and workplace interventions (such as CIMS) to help strengthen employee wellness and organizational health. Topics include (but are not limited to) Change Management, Stress Management and Organizational Change. For additional information visit: EAS Programs.

To initiate a Specialized Organizational Services workshop or one-on-one counseling service pertaining to Change Management, Stress Management and Organizational Change, contact Health Canada's Specialized Organizational Services marketing line by phone at 1-888-366-8213, fax: 613-948-8531 or email: Health Canada’s Specialized Organizational Services.

Having major difficulties accessing the counselling services or experiencing service quality issues contact Health Canada at 1-800-268-7708 or email: NA-PAE_EAP-GD.

Every year, Health Canada Employee Assistance Services provides each employee with a promotional item at no cost. These promotional items are distributed to all Branch and Regional Offices, usually in the month of December. If you, or someone else from your office (such as a new employee), have not received the promotional item (calendar), please send an email to NA-PAE_EAP-GD indicating the number of calendars you need and the full postal address for delivery.

Health Canada also offers various promotional items, such as magnets, stress balls, gel pens and key chains. To consult the complete list of available items, including their description and cost, please refer to the order form (PDF, 1.14 MB).

If you would like to order some of these items, you will need to complete the form and send it directly to Health Canada at the following address: Patrick McGuire.

Visit: About EAS for more information.