What is the background of Silver Oak Health?
Silver Oak Health is one of the leading Employee Assistance Program (EAP) services provider in India. The company was founded in 2015 by highly experienced professionals from Psychology and HR backgrounds. Silver Oak Health provides EAP services for over 100 well-known corporate clients in India and is one of most innovative in the industry. The employee engagement for Silver Oak Health’s EAP services is one of the highest among peers in the industry.
What is EAP?
Employee Assistance Program (EAP) is a confidential, company provided benefit to corporate employees that are going through various mental health challenges through psychological counselling and allied services. Employees can directly access counsellors through the EAP provider’s helpline number. Some EAP companies like Silver Oak Health provides Online Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) and Mindfulness programs to help employees become resilient to stress, as well as learn strategies such as mindfulness to cope with the day to day stress challenges. EAP companies also provide emergency services in the event of a suicide threat, as well as grief counselling.
What types of problems are seen through EAP?
Silver Oak Health’s counsellors are available to discuss any issues related to your personal life or work related challenges. Typical challenges will include:
Work related stress
Personal issues
Family/personal relationship issues
Marriage counselling
Financial or non-work-related legal concern
Major life events, including births, accidents and deaths
Health concerns
Substance abuse
Concerns about ageing parents
What are the EAP services provided by Silver Oak Health?
Silver Oak Health provides one of the most comprehensive EAP solutions in the market. Many companies have discontinued traditional services from traditional EAP providers and have selected Silver Oak Health because of its highly innovative programs that engage employees of all age and background. We are successful in engaging office employees as well as manufacturing employees and have PAN India presence. Our services are offered to employees and family members depending on the commercials selected by employers. Please read more to know about Silver Oak Health’s EAP services.
Will Silver Oak Health provide customized EAP Package?
Yes. Our comprehensive offering includes 24/7 phone counselling through our helpline, access to our app and portal to chat with our counsellors and booking appointments, Tranquil Mindfulness App, Online CBT, Assessments and round the year support for building awareness. We also cover family members of employees. However, companies have the option to select various components of our EAP services as per their needs, including customized workshops and webinars in the package, and have the option to include family members as required.
Is Silver Oak Health EAP services available PAN India?
Yes. Silver Oak Health has large numbers of full-time and affiliate counsellors based in various cities and towns across the country. We have one of the most extensive coverages across the country and service offices and manufacturing sites that are located away from big cities. Employees have the option to visit our counsellors in the towns and cities where they work and live. In some of the larger cities we have a number of counsellors and so employees can choose to visit a counsellor nearest to where they work or live.
How scalable are Silver Oak Health’s services? Do you have digital programs in your EAP offering?
Silver Oak Health’s strength is in having scalable programs to assist employees wherever they are located across the country. The program can be launched for employees in various locations including multiple offices in large cities and smaller towns, as well as in manufacturing locations. Silver Oak Health offers phone and video counselling that can be availed from anywhere in the country, online Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) that can be availed from home or office, a Tranquil Mindfulness App to practice mindfulness, as well as a contemporary app for accessing counselling via chat, phone, booking appointments etc. Silver Oak Health gives employees the option to log in via computer or mobile devices. We also offer a digital dashboard for HR managers to monitor utilisation.
What makes Silver Oak Health different from other EAP Providers?
Traditional EAP providers’ services are limited to counselling services over phone and face to face, along with a few stress management workshops for employees. Only limited numbers of the employees are interested in these traditional services, and that is evident from low workshop participation as well as the limited uptake on counselling services. In addition to the 24/7 counselling offered as part of EAP services, Silver Oak Health offers proactive wellbeing programs to engage employees of various age group, and from different work settings such as office and manufacturing jobs. In the event that some of the employees do not want to avail counselling services, they may get interested in the Mindfulness programs though our Tranquil App. Others may find our counsellor assisted online CBT program useful to become more resilient to stress and its reactions like depression and anxiety. We also offer highly engaging and interactive workshops and webinars on current and relevant topics, as well as positive psychology matters. We also offer fun, engaging onsite events around the year to engage employees where they learn strategies to prevent job burn out and address social media-induced mental health challenges. Our round the year awareness support through creatives and videos help build interest in EAP services among employees. As a result, we are not only offering one of the most comprehensive EAP services, our employee engagement is one of the highest in the industry, thus providing great value for EAP investments.
What is Counselling?
Counselling is an interactive process where people discuss difficult issues, set goals and work towards them with the guidance of a professional counsellor. Every so often, we may encounter situations that are difficult to deal with from our professional life or in many cases challenges arising from our personal lives. Professional counselling is an excellent way to discuss our problems and difficult feelings that we encounter in a safe and confidential environment. Through counselling, people are able to make changes in how we think and behave. People may choose to speak to a counsellor because they do not wish to speak about personal matters to their spouse, friends and family members or because they want an objective view from a trained professional.
How does one know when he or she needs Counselling?
There is a misconception that people go for counselling to address severe mental challenges. The reality is that people can seek counselling for any issue that they are unable to cope with, things that are not working out the way they want or if they simply want some emotional support. Some common subjects that can be addressed with counselling are:
Relationship difficulties, including roommates, significant others, colleagues, and friends
Stress management
Relationship violence and physical abuse
Marriage issues
Anxiety
Depression
Parenting challenges
Anger management
Eating disorders
Gender identity and sexual orientation
Grief
Addiction and abuse of alcohol and other drugs
Adjustment issues, including adjustment to college life
Sexual assault
Thoughts of suicide or preoccupation with death
Time management and boundary building
Trauma and much more
What is the difference between counselling and psychotherapy?
The terms "counsellor" and "psychotherapist" are often used interchangeably and have many similarities, but there are some important differences as well. In general, counselling is recommended for specific issues and situations, such as anxiety or depression. Psychotherapy, in contrast, tends to explore past issues that might be contributing to present-day problems. It often takes place continually or intermittently over a period of years. In actual practice, however, there is a great deal of overlap between the two types of therapies. In the context of mental health, "counselling" is generally used to denote a relatively brief treatment that is focused primarily on behaviour. It often targets a particular symptom or problematic situation and offers suggestions and advice for dealing with it. In other words, psychotherapy addresses the root cause and core issues of current problems so that lasting change and personal growth may occur.
Is Silver Oak Health’s EAP counselling Confidential & Secure?
An extremely important part of counselling is confidentiality, which means that the information discussed in the sessions will be accessible only by you and your counsellor, with a few exceptions that involve a threat to own life, the life of others or destruction of property. Silver Oak Health follows the best industry practices to ensure complete privacy of clients for counselling and all wellbeing programs.
Can someone chat with a counsellor before booking an appointment?
Yes. Silver Oak Health’s counsellors are available on chat through the EAP app and through the online portal.
How do video sessions work?
Video call is an excellent way for employees to see the counsellors during the counselling sessions. Video calls are very common and employees are increasingly availing this service. In certain cases where two people have to be together with the counsellor, like marriage related counselling, Video is an excellent method for discussions.
Can someone choose to connect particularly with female/male Counsellor? Is this possible?
Yes. We do have both male and female counsellors. If an employee has a preference, it can be provided based on request.
What are the Qualifications of the Counsellors?
All our counsellors have post-graduate training in Clinical Psychology or Psychotherapy from reputed institutions. The counsellors also have considerable experience in family and workplace counselling. Our counsellors have experience in individual counselling, couples or marriage counselling, family counselling, or group counselling. All our counsellors are experienced in Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) and Mindfulness-based therapy.
What are the languages in which counselling is provided?
In addition to English and Hindi, we offer counselling in over 14 major languages in India. Employees can request counselling in a language of their preference, and we will have one of our counsellors who speak that language get in touch with the employee.
How can an Employee reach out to EAP professionals? What are the modes?
Employees can reach our counsellors by simply dialling our helpline number. They will be connected to one of our counsellors who will be there to assist. In case they want to book an appointment, they can use our EAP app or the online portal. They can also chat with our counsellors by using the app or the portal. Counsellors are also available via email.
What legal counselling services does the EAP provide?
Silver Oak Health provides legal guidance services where employees can call our legal experts to discuss any legal matters. Our legal experts will provide guidance on what are the options available to pursue related to legal challenges.
What financial counselling services does the EAP provide?
Silver Oak Health provides financial guidance services to employees where they can call to discuss any challenges related to financial matters such as loans, or even guidance on savings and investments.
Does Silver Oak Health’s EAP cover family members as well?
Yes. Silver Oak Health will cover immediate family members and dependents of employees.
What are the pro-active wellbeing solutions offered by Silver Oak Health?
Silver Oak Health’s mission is to create resilient and mindful organizations. We believe that in order to cover most of the employees through EAP services, it is important to have pro-active wellbeing programs along with reactive counselling services available by phone, video and face-to-face. We encourage employees to enrol into our online CBT program to become more resilient to stress, as well as download and use our Tranquil Mindfulness App to introduce mindfulness into their lives. These pro-active wellbeing programs along with our counselling services make us one of the most comprehensive EAP providers in the country.
What is Tranquil Mindfulness App?
Mindfulness is the basic human ability to be fully present and being aware of what is going on right now with a sense of curiosity and openness. It is also the ways and means of unhooking us from the stress cycle. Silver Oak Health developed India’s first Mindfulness App called Tranquil and thousands of corporate employees are practising mindfulness using this app. Tranquil has audio guided practices with Indian voices for employees to listen and learn mindfulness.
How is Tranquil App different from other Mindfulness Apps?
Tranquil Mindfulness App is designed for employees in India. The app was developed in India and guided practices are recorded in the country by local mindfulness practitioners for employees to relate and practice regularly. The app is rich in features like 7-day, 10-day, 21-day tracks, reminders, reflections and progress reports. The App is available for both iPhone and Android phone users.
What is Resilience?
Resilience is the ability to bounce back when faced with stress challenges. There are many situations in the modern workplace that are inevitably stressful. Individuals with high resilience can experience high-stress situations positively. So rather than working to reduce the inevitable stress of the competitive business world, there is a growing emphasis on promoting resilience in the organisation. Resilient individuals report experiencing positive emotions in stressed situations. Positive emotions are much more associated with the ability to problem solve than negative emotions. This gives continuity to the organisation, gives the company a critical competitive strategic advantage and, most importantly, helps to protect individual employees. Resilience is not a function of intelligence. It is much more related to personality factors and the presence of coping skills.
What is Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) and how does Silver Oak Health’s Online Resilience Program work?
Cognitive-behavioural therapy (CBT) is a type of psychotherapeutic treatment that helps people learn how to identify and change destructive or disturbing thought patterns that have a negative influence on behaviour and emotions.
Cognitive-behavioural therapy focuses on changing the automatic negative thoughts that can contribute to and worsen emotional difficulties, depression, and anxiety. These spontaneous negative thoughts have a detrimental influence on mood.
Through CBT, these thoughts are identified, challenged, and replaced with more objective, realistic thoughts. There are different types of therapy such as CBT, REBT, DBT, multimodal therapy.
Silver Oak Health offers an opportunity for employees to undergo CBT at the convenience of their own home. The company has developed a CBT for Indian employees that will take around 8 weeks to complete. This program is supported by counsellors on the phone. Employees that enrol into this program will need to spend around 30-40 minutes per week on a video-based program from home each week. They will also get a call from our counsellors once a week until they complete the program. The program will help employees become more resilient to deal with day to day stress challenges in life.
What is Stress Control Online?
Our resilience program Stress Control Online is an 8-week, counsellor-guided online Cognitive Behavioural Therapy Program that was developed in Bangalore by Silver Oak Health for the Indian population. The program based on Dr Jim White’s Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT). Dr White is a Glasgow based clinical psychologist and a leading authority in CBT. Stress Control Online is a scientific, highly structured, and personalized solution.
How does the 8-week CBT program work?
Each employee is assigned a dedicated coach (psychologist) who guides and assists them via weekly phone calls (30 minutes per week). The program also consists of interactive video-based learning strategies to cope with stress (30 minutes of self-learning per week). Stress Control Online contains in-built pre-and post-assessments to measure mood, anxiety, and depression levels of each participant. At the end of 8 weeks, most people show improvements. The program is currently being used by companies in India to assist employees that are undergoing stress, anxiety and depression challenges as well as for cessation of tobacco and substance abuse. The program has been offered for corporate employees in India since 2016.
Does Silver Oak Health have assessments?
Silver Oak Health offers a number of assessments to help employees determine how well they are coping with stress. We offer a highly validated assessment called the Health-related Quality of Life assessment to determine the overall scores, physical functioning, emotional wellbeing and social functioning scores. We provide percentile scores so that employees can determine where they stand against others who have taken the assessment across the country. Silver Oak Health can administer assessments exclusively for each company to obtain average scores broken down by gender, age, occupation and geographic location. This will help HR managers objectively determine what percentage of employees are undergoing difficulties in coping with stress so that various interventions can be offered through our EAP services.
Does Silver Oak Health offer covid related webinar?
Yes. The current Covid pandemic has created anxieties among employees related to their health, concerns for family members and parenting challenges. Some employees are forced to live alone while others are forced to stay at home for extended periods of time. The current list of Covid related webinars include:
Building Mental Wellness
Mental Preparedness to Return to Work post COVID-19
Building Mental Resilience to deal with COVID-19 challenges
Self-Care during COVID-19
Manager Sensitization on Emotional Well-being
Mindfulness using Art Therapy
Mindfulness for everyday life
Mindful Parenting
Mental Health Conversations Matter - Challenge the Stigma
Building Mindful Organisations
Mindful Leadership