Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, August 4, 1994 TAG: 9408040068
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: By ALLISON BLAKE STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Mental health counselor Martin Maples and his assistant will be out of jobs - and many state supervisors who turned to him when they could not figure out how to help their employees may be left, at least temporarily, scratching their heads.
Maples is the Blacksburg-based coordinator for the State Employee Assistance Service, a benefit to the nearly 20,000 state employees from Hot Springs to Roanoke and down to Bristol that now will be run by phone out of Richmond.
An average of 200 employees a year from such agencies as Virginia Tech and the Virginia Department of Transportation relied on Maples, who matched workers who had mental health problems with the help they needed.
What will be the impact?
``I think it's the kind of situation, you don't know what you've got 'til it's gone,'' said Maples, who learned of the closing last week.
Maples fielded calls from employers and employees alike who were concerned with problems ranging from drug or alcohol abuse to serious emotional problems.
``He was a good contact person for the initial assessment service, as well as someone to send the patient back to [after treatment]. Unfortunately, they need all the follow-up care they can get just to hold their own,'' said David Hankley, who runs the Intensive Outpatient Chemical Dependency Program at St. Albans Psychiatric Hospital near Radford.
Maples taught managers how to spot workers with mental health problems - something few bosses are prepared to handle without help. It was more humanitarian for the worker, and, given liability issues, it probably saved management money, Maples said.
He also offered individuals two sessions of free counseling. That saved each of the 75 or so people who took him up on the counseling each year - or their insurance companies - $150 to $200.
The cuts were part of across-the-board parings made to meet a mandated cut of nearly $500,000 to the Department of Personnel and Training, said director Chuck James.
``It's only two employees, you understand, in Blacksburg,'' he said. The savings? ``Maybe $80,000.''
James pointed out that state employees still have regular mental health benefits through their insurance, and service still can be rendered by phone.
Dennis Evey, Tech's employee relations manager, said his office is trying to come up with a contingency plan to help fill the gap opened by the demise of Maples' office.
``Typically, [the office helped] with a situation a supervisor doesn't know how to deal with,'' Evey said.
Say, for example, that a VDOT maintenance worker who takes care of trucks has a drug or alcohol abuse problem. The problem endangers other workers. How does that supervisor approach the employee?
``From my perspective, that's the person I called when I didn't know what to do, when [an employee] was having personal, psychological, family or substance abuse problems,'' said Wayne Varga, who oversees safety for VDOT maintenance employees around the state from his Richmond office.
``We considered it a valuable resource,'' Evey said.
Maples has been on the job three years, spending two days a week in field offices throughout the Southwest Virginia region. He says his work depends on building trust.
It takes time. In a way, he said, ``I feel like I'm just now getting a foothold.''
``Out here,'' he said, ``folks are hesitant to go to counseling. We could normalize it, demystify it, and people got the help they needed.''
A similar office is closing in Virginia Beach.
by CNB