Teachers therapy saves cash

A COUNSELLING service for SA’s public school teachers is saving more than three times as much money as is spent on it, by improving productivity and reducing absenteeism.

Over the past two years, almost 2000 teachers completed more than 5000 counselling sessions for workplace or personal issues.

A study by Flinders and Carnegie Mellon universities, the first of its type for a largescale Australian “employee assistance program”, found the benefits last year alone of $1.44 million far outstripped the $432,000 cost of the service.

As well as improving teachers’ mental health, the Education Department service contributed to them doing an extra 18,000 hours of productive work.

Study author Donald Shepard, pictured, who recently served as chair of applied public policy across the two unis, said: “Most large organisations, both in the US and Australia, have EAP programs, so this research can be applied and will be of interest to many international stakeholders.”

The study concluded that the department should continue the counselling scheme because of its “proven benefit”.

The rate of take-up by teachers in the regions was lower than in Adelaide, prompting the researchers to call for more promotion of the service in country areas.

The counselling sessions are available in person or by phone. In-person sessions were more popular but satisfaction ratings for phone counselling were higher. The study is published in the Journal of Workplace Behavioural Health.