Professional counseling in a company with a broad dispersion of work locations

Personal counseling by a well trained professional has been available to employees and their families in the Northwestern Bell Telephone Company in parts of the State of Iowa for five years. The service has been available on a voluntary basis at no charge at the work location. The program has been very successful when measured by the acceptance of the service by the empolyees and by the results of the counseling experience as evaluated by the counselor. The service has not been abused. The range of clinical problems presented fills the entire spectrum of case work. It is interesting that few of the problems are directly due to the work situation. There have been very few appointment cancellations, and most of the cases are closed as "improved". The program was started without a model and has developed slowly. The wide geographic dispersion of our employee work locations has added to the complexity of the program's management. We hope to extend this program of personal counseling to employees in other states in our company. We have demonstrated in Iowa that there is a need for this kind of service at the work location. We have shown that a counselor can be of service with credibility away from a medical department if organizational lines to the company medical department are clearly defined. Our humanity directs us to help our fellow man when he is troubled. Good management philosophy respects the need for physical and emotional health in the employee. A personal counseling program is in harmony with both of the philosophic principles.