Employee assistance space opened in White Plains

Westchester County Executive Ken Jenkins led the list of county officials who participated in the Jan. 16 ribbon-cutting for a new Westchester County Employee Assistance Program (EAP) health and wellness facility at 112 E. Post Road in White Pains. The program that is now operating at the new facility provides mental health and other support services for employees of the county as well as 34 municipalities and emergency service department.

Personnel are encouraged to take advantage of the free and confidential intake, assessment, short-term counseling and referral services for a variety of issues.

Westchester County introduced an expanded EAP in 2023, offering employees and their family members support services for mental health issues, parenting and family stresses, traumatic events, eldercare support, financial counseling, childcare, grief services and more. The program also provides critical incident response and intervention.

According to the county, last year nearly 600 county workers and municipal employees from around the county contacted EAP and were either provided with assistance by the program or given referrals for long-term assistance. In addition, the program staged 35 training sessions that reached nearly 1,000 county employees and 47 training sessions for nearly 600 employees of various municipalities.

At the ribbon-cutting, Westchester County Executive Ken Jenkins said, “Our administration takes the health and wellness of all of our employees of our county and of our local municipalities very, very seriously.”

Jenkins said that it’s hard for employees to provide services to the public when they have their own unresolved issues.

“Our colleagues are people first, and our goal is to increase employee happiness, wellness and productivity,” Jenkins said.

County Mental Health Commissioner Michael Orth said, “The commitment of an EAP program is a reflection of the values of county government. There has been a major investment in our EAP workforce and this particular program, EAP. This has included over the past year or two expanded EAP staffing se we have enough staff to support our employees and meet their demands, additional service through Optimum which provides after-hours texts and resources for our county employees and, of course, our new EAP suite which provides us with a nice, comfortable, private space for our county workforce. As we know, life can be challenging for all of us. EAP is here to support staff during those difficult times, provide assistance, resources and, of course, hope for workers and their family members.”