Employee Assistance Programs in South Africa

Employee Assistance Programs (EAPs) are a relatively new development in South Africa, having emerged in the 1980s, and this groundbreaking book provides a comprehensive overview of these EAPs in South Africa. It gives readers a first-hand view of the myriad issues encountered by South African practitioners. Employee Assistance Programs in South Africa provides EAP professionals, human resources managers, social workers, psychologists, and other mental health professionals with startling insight into the significant clinical, cultural, and ethical problems that their South African colleagues face in the workplace. It begins to fill the gap in the literature on professional practice in an apartheid society and can help develop opportunities for dialogue and an exchange of ideas between all EAP workers to help educate them and bring them together.

This enlightening and potentially controversial book addresses a variety of pertinent topics, including:

• the conceptual sophistication of EAPs currently operating in the South African business community

• an evaluation of the macro model EAP in South Africa in light of the country’s sociopolitical, economic, and social problems

• cultural concerns facing black and white EAP practitioners and clients

• ethical conflicts inherent in working in an environment sanctioned by apartheid

• widespread alcohol and drug problems in South Africa

• the development of a post-traumatic stress and accident involvement program

• current educational developments in the EAP field in South Africa

  Providing a thorough, clear understanding of South Africa’s EAPs, this is an ideal book for all professionals and advanced students interested in the effects of political, societal, and cultural values on the operations of EAPs in a foreign country.