The Employee Assistance Professionals Association (EAPA) has confirmed its chair and elected new members to the board as the body called for Employee Assistance Programmes (EAP) to renew their focus on mental health.
Karl Bennett, owner and director of The Wellbeing Consortium, has been re-elected as chair of the EAPA UK until 2027. Bennett was first elected EAPA chair in 2023 and was previously wellbeing director at employee benefits provider Vivup and director at EAP provider Care first. In his first working role, he was a radio presenter.
New association board members include Brian Taylor, commercial director at Life & Progress and David Elliott, director of Manage Health.
At the EAPA UK annual general meeting last week (20 June), Bennett said: “EAPs are thriving as the ‘go to’ service for mental health support for millions of employees in the UK every year — and with that demand there comes even more pressures and responsibilities.
“We need to continue with maintaining the highest levels of clinical and ethical standards.
“The increased attention and significance of employee wellbeing over the past decade has meant EAPs being drawn into delivering a much wider range of wellbeing services. And that can be a distraction from the real purpose and missions of EAPs in the UK, to find the best ways to support employees with their mental health and emotional wellness.”
He said he was looking forward “to pushing ahead on these areas alongside our dedicated board at EAPA UK, and providing the best possible framework for all the brilliant, committed professionals employed by our industry”.
At the meeting, Bennett said every current EAPA UK member had been through a new standards audit in the past year, and had passed that process.
Eugene Farrell, former mental health lead at AXA PPP and head of the EAPA UK during the challenging Covid-19 years, has stepped down from the board to focus on his new business, called HealthEFarrell.
The current EAPA board includes Bennett, Steven Stanbury as vice-chair, Bertrand Stern-Gillet as treasurer, Jayne Andrews as secretary, and members Harry Key, Stefan Jagielski, Cliff Lee, James Dickson, Emma Bradshaw, Taylor and Elliott.
