Memorandum

City of Lawrence

Department of Administrative Services

TO:	Mike Wildgen, City Manager
FROM:	Frank S. Reeb, Director of Administrative Services/City Clerk Lori Carnahan, Personnel Manager
CC:	Dave Corliss, Assistant City Manager/Director of Legal Services Debbie Van Saun, Assistant City Manager
Date:	September 23, 2004
RE:	Employee Assistance Program for 2005

The Administrative Services Department has completed the Request for Proposal (RFP) process for the 2005 implementation of an Employee Assistance Program (EAP).  RFPs were distributed to eleven companies, posted on DemandStar, and placed on the City’s website.  After reviewing eight proposals, two companies were selected to interview on site.  As described below, we recommend that the City contract with New Directions Behavioral Health (“NDBH”), LLC of Leawood, KS for the City’s EAP program beginning January 1, 2005 for a total cost not to exceed $23,000 in 2005.  NDBH is currently the EAP for 68 city and county governments including several in northeast Kansas (e.g., Topeka, Overland Park, Olathe, Lenexa, and Unified Government/KCK).

NDBH will offer counseling services to employees for a variety of short term, non-medical situations, including: family-centered issues (e.g., parenting, marital, and elder care), workplace issues (including developing conflict resolution skills), stress management, grief and loss, legal and financial referral, and direction for chemical dependency treatment.  Such services include a dedicated helpline (24/7 365 day a year access to screening and triage by licensed behavioral health professionals), face-to-face sessions, and access to information on the NDBH website www.ndbh.com. 

In addition, NDBH will also be a resource for city supervisors for a variety of topics, including drug-free workplace issues, managing workplace conflict, and properly addressing workplace performance issues.  The NDBH website includes a password protected section, The Management Forum, which includes many resources such as a supervisory manual, downloadable forms for management referrals, and an online newsletter. 

Further, NDBH will offer employee orientations, and Critical Incident Crisis Intervention (CICI). Attached is a list of the program components included in the New Directions EAP.

NDBH will provide staff with confidential, quarterly utilization reports to better understand utilization rate, primary problems/service (e.g., emotional, marital, child care, etc.), and the source of the referral (self, family, supervisor, etc.).  This information can then be used to tailor the training sessions to assist with issues that most affect workplace attendance and performance. 

The New Directions proposal has a three-year rate guarantee beginning with $1.90 per employee per month (PEPM) in 2005, increasing to $1.95 PEPM in 2006 and $2.05 PEPM in 2007.  The PEPM rate includes counseling services for employees, employee orientation meetings, ten hours of on-site CICI, ten hours employee or supervisory training, website access and written or electronic materials for employees.

Additional services include:

· Additional employee or supervisor training @ $100/hour.

· Department of Transportation (DOT) Substance Abuse Professional (SAP) case management @ $125/hour.

· Additional CICI @ $150/hour.

The projected 2005 costs for the EAP are:

$18,240                  Base Charge of $1.90 PEPM for 800 employees

$ 1,000                   Ten hours additional employee/supervisor training (estimate)

$ 1,500                   Ten hours additional CICI (estimate)

$ 1,875                   Fifteen hours DOT/CDL/SAP Case Management services (estimate)

$22,615

We are seeking approval to enter into a contract with New Directions at this time in order to present the program to employees during Open Enrollment, which begins in October.

If you have any questions, please let us know.