County looks to give mental health help to employees

Sometimes it is important to have someone you can talk to about a problem.

Citing an increasing amount of people bringing personal issues into the workplace and dealing with traumatic workplace situations, county human resources director Marie Koerner asked members of the personnel committee on Monday to invest $7,500 in an employee assistance program. Koerner explained that the vendor will provide crisis response for critical incidents in the workplace, provide support and group debriefing for law enforcement and human services personnel following incidents and also be a resource for county employees and their family members to get help with a variety of mental health issues.

The program is in addition to and separate from the mental health coverage provided as part of the county’s health insurance. County personnel and their family members would have access to a certain number of sessions per incident. If additional sessions are needed they would be referred to medical providers.

Koerner noted that the sessions under the program would not count as claims against the county’s health insurance. Since usage rates are the primary driver in health insurance costs, this could potentially result in savings for the county.

Koerner said the issues impacting people in the workplace could be things like a death in their family. She said many times people do not seek mental health services because of the out of pocket costs to meet the deductible.

“It seems like a lot of good services for $7,500,” said committee member Rollie Thums about what is offered.

Committee chairman Chuck Zenner said adding this benefit to employees would also take some of the burden off of Koerner who often has to deal with the issues caused by people bringing mental health concerns into the workplace.

“I’m not a therapist and none of our department heads are therapists,” Koerner said, noting that having someone to easily refer employees to will be a help.

“I think it is well worth the cost,” said highway commissioner Ben Stanfley, noting that there are many instances where employees could use these services.

Thums said that as a member of the Rib Lake Fire Department they have to deal with death quite often. “We always have a debriefing. . . . It helps,” he said. “You see a lot of things you don’t want to see in your life.”

County health director Patty Krug agreed, “I think this would be a vital program.” She noted the additional stress members of her department are facing in dealing with public health issues with people on all sides complaining they are either not doing enough or doing too much. “This program is valuable to all employees with what we are dealing with,” she said.

Liza Daleiden, director of the human services department, agrees saying they have had a horrific year for incidents and that there is often difficulty in getting access to counseling services because of backlogs. She said this would be an important way to show the county board’s support for the well-being of the staff.

Human services employee Jen Meyer agreed saying the program will reduce burnout and turnover while decreasing the amount of sick time and family medical leave people have to use.

Committee members approved adding the employee assistance program to begin in January 2022.

In other business, committee members:

_ Approved a limited term employee program specialist to work in the health department at $30 per hour. The individual will work on an occasional basis in prevention programs such as vision screenings in the schools and other prevention programs.

_ Approved changes to the casual employees wage scale adding substitute nutrition site managers at $13.27 per hour. Currently there are no substitutes for these positions requiring commission on aging director Nathanael Brown to deliver meals and run sites when there are absences. The change also added a storage coordinator to handle the parking and removal of campers and boats stored in the fairgrounds buildings over the winter. The rate is $32 per hour but the work is about four hours in the spring and four hours in the fall. Koerner explained that a recent retiree from the county is interested in continuing to do the work. In the past he would do this at his county overtime rate. The storage of campers, boats and other equipment is a significant source of revenue for the county.