Inside an Emotional Health Program: A Field Study of Workplace Assistance for Troubled Employees

Central to the author's analysis of his experiences is the controversial issue of whether or not treating employee problems in a clinical setting—medicalizing them—is a form of social control that substitutes for political change in the workplace.Inside an Emotional Health Program considers questions essential to the existence of any employee counseling program: Who uses the program? For what kinds of problems? How do program clients decide to seek help? Are their problems resolved? How? What are the benefits to the employer?It provides a great deal of information and many insights on this relatively new workplace phenomenon and should be a valuable resource for the personnel management and counseling communities.

About the Author

William J. Sonnenstuhl is Associate Professor of Organizational Behavior at the New York State School of Industrial and Labor Relations and the Department of Extension, Cornell University, Associate Director of the Smithers Institute for Alcohol-Related Workplace Studies, author of Working Sober , and coauthor of Member Assistance Programs in the Workplace , also from Cornell.