The Employee Assistance Program (EAP) is a free service provided by the county to all county employees to use for help with work-related problems.

Anyone who is an active employee can use the EAP, regardless of status as full-time, part-time, temporary or seasonal. Individuals who are contracted by an outside firm to do work for King County are not eligible to use King County's EAP.

King County's EAP is for active employees only. However, there is a different program for you and your family members called Making Life Easier. See below for more details about that program.

King County's EAP is here to help employees, supervisors and managers resolve almost any issues that might be affecting work or work performance. If we aren't the ones to come to for a particular issue then we'll get you connected to the right resource.

Managers and supervisors often times come to us for help figuring out how to address employee performance problems, like chronic absenteeism or tardiness, conflict between two or more workers, inability or refusal to carry out tasks, various kinds of disruptive behaviors, genuine concern about an employee's well-being or ways to enhance group cohesion.

Employees use EAP for help with just about anything that might be affecting them or their performance at work. It may be an on-going conflict with a co-worker or supervisor, unwelcome conduct by others, concern about another employee who's afraid to ask for help directly, loss of interest or motivation in work, coping with unwanted changes, even problems from his or her personal life that are starting to interfere with work.

If in doubt about whether EAP can help with your particular issue, call us and find out.

Yes, what we discuss at the EAP is treated confidentially. Release of any information generally requires your knowledge and consent. However, federal and state laws require some exceptions to total confidentiality as well as county policy guided by concern for public safety. During your initial meeting, we will review these exceptions with you.

There are generally two ways individuals come to the EAP: on their own or because their supervisor referred them to us.

If you come to the EAP on your own we are under no obligation (except as noted above as the exceptions to confidentiality) to disclose anything to your supervisor and will not do so without your consent.

If we know your supervisor referred you, we will automatically place a "courtesy call" to your supervisor to let them know you kept the appointment and whether you are working with EAP to address the issues for which you were referred. Any further information can only be released with your consent.

We'll talk with you about that and you can decide what's in your best interest. You retain the right to tell us whether you want more information released or not.

Use of the EAP should generally be voluntary (even when you think the employee should come to us.) There may be an occasional exception when requiring them to come to us is appropriate but we always ask that you call us before you require someone to come in and discuss that particular situation.

You must call and let us know you have asked the employee to come in. We will consider that a "supervisor referral," let your employee know you called ahead and as explained above, call you after his or her scheduled visit only to let you know s/he did or did not come in and whether s/he is working with us to address the issue(s) you made the referral about.

The EAP Coordinators are Pam Wyss (206-684-2103) and Tony Hansen (206-263-4572).

Pam is a Certified Employee Assistance Professional, Qualified Substance Abuse Professional, and has a Masters Degree in Social Work. She has more than 20 years experience as an EAP counselor. Tony is licensed in Washington State both as a Mental Health Counselor and Chemical Dependency Professional, has a Masters Degree in Counseling, and is a Qualified Substance Abuse Professional.

The EAP is located in downtown Seattle on the 5th floor of the Yesler Building at 400 Yesler Way. Let us know if you need specific directions.
Hours at the EAP are from 7:30 a.m. - 4:30 p.m., Monday - Friday. The office is closed for regular holidays.

It's generally best to make an appointment as we cannot guarantee our availability for walk-ins.

The EAP is a no cost service to all employees of King County who are having problems that appear to be affecting their work or work performance.

Making Life Easier (MLE) is a no cost service available to all benefit-eligible employees, their dependent family members (even those living away from home) and anyone living in the employee's household, for help resolving personal problems that are not having a serious impact on the employee's work performance.