Employee Assistance Services: Employee Assistance Program

On this page:

• About the program
• Chat Service
• What to expect
• Black-Centric enhancements to the Employee Assistance Program
• Quality assurance
• Customer relations
• Client survey

About the program

Health Canada offers its Employee Assistance Program (EAP) to employees and family members in over 90 federal organizations. The program is free, voluntary and confidential. It offers short-term mental health support and can help with concerns affecting your personal or professional well-being, including:

• couple, parenting or family relationships
• work-life balance
• stress management, anxiety and burnout
• conflicts at home or work
• issues such as:
  • discrimination
  • racism
  • homophobia
• grief and loss (for yourself or a loved one)

The program is available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week if you’re in distress or want a referral to a mental health professional .

While most federal organizations use Health Canada’s Employee Assistance Program, others may use internal or private sector services. If you’re not sure who to connect with, look up your organizational provider first.

If you’re worried about immediate harm to yourself or others, call 9-1-1.

Learn more:

• Contact the Employee Assistance Program
• Find your organization’s Employee Assistance Program provider

Chat Service

You can also contact the EAP Crisis and Referral Centre using our live chat service if you’re:

• a Government of Canada employee
• a current and former member of the RCMP or Canadian Armed Forces
• an immediate family member

You can use the Chat service to:

• set up an appointment with a mental health professional
• get general information about the EAP
• ask to be referred to resources in the community

This service is available Monday to Friday, from 8 am to 7:30 pm Eastern time, except statutory holidays. Contact us by phone outside of these hours.

Access Chat 

Do not contact us by both chat and telephone at the same time. If you can’t access chat from your workplace or while connected to VPN, try using a personal device. Your departmental firewalls might be blocking a connection to the service from your workplace.

Contact us by phone

What to expect

Our services are available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, with calls answered by mental health professionals located in Canada. Services are completely confidential. We do not inform your employer that you or a family member contacted us.

You will have access to:

• services in English and French
• digital services if you’re deaf or hard of hearing
• sessions offered in person, by video, phone or email
• immediate crisis counselling and suicide intervention
• up to 12 hours of support if you’re in a situation of intimate partner violence

We can provide you with a referral to a mental health professional in your area for short-term, solution-focused mental health support. Our network of close to 1,000 mental health professionals all have a Master's degree in counselling, social work or psychology and at least 5 years’ experience. They can provide referrals to an appropriate external community resource if the issue is longer-term, or if specialized treatment is needed. They’ll call you within 2 business days, and will usually offer an appointment within the next 5 business days.

You can also ask for a mental health professional who:

• self-identifies with a specific community
• has experience and training supporting clients from a particular group, such as:
  • Indigenous Peoples
  • persons with a disability
  • 2SLGBTQIA+ groups
  • cultural or religious groups

You’ll also have the option to ask for a different mental health professional if the referral isn’t a good fit.

Some organizations also offer web-based platforms from LifeSpeak Inc., with expert-led videos and resources on mental health, wellness and caregiving. Contact us to find out how to access these resources.

Black-Centric enhancements to the Employee Assistance Program

Our program is working to better support Black public servants and their immediate family members through Black-centric enhancements to the EAP. We do this by:

• increasing the number of Black mental health professionals across our network
• providing clients with the option to ask to be referred to a Black mental health professional
• training counsellors and staff on anti-Black racism and using culturally competent, trauma-informed approaches to mental health support

To learn more about this initiative: Black-Centric enhancements to the Employee Assistance Program

Quality assurance

Our program is accredited and consistently meets the high standards set by the Council on Accreditation. We have a quality assurance team who ensures these standards by:

• offering services at no cost to the person seeking assistance
• having an in-depth selection process for contracted mental health professionals
• overseeing case management intervention plans, making sure that they:
  • respect our mandate
  • can best meet our clients’ needs
• training and guidance for contracted mental health professionals, including:
  • online orientation
  • diversity and inclusion sessions

In addition, we achieve such high standards by respecting laws and government policies like:

• Official Languages Act
• Canadian Human Rights Act
• Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act
• Treasury Board Directive on the Employee Assistance Program

We survey clients once services are completed, and each year respondents consistently say they’re "totally" or "very satisfied" with our services. We also:

• address service issues through a complaints process
• collect client input through a feedback site and ensure quick follow-ups

Online feedback form

Customer relations

The customer relations team is the go-to resource that ensures account management and liaison services for all federal organizations who use our Employee Assistance Program. They provide:

• dedicated account managers to answer questions, review data and work with customer organizations to:
  • address concerns
  • promote the program
  • improve service delivery
  • recommend additional support and training services
• information sessions to employees and managers to promote the use of services
• a flexible service model tailored to the organization’s needs
• usage reports
• bilingual and accessible newsletters and communications

Client survey

If you've recently completed counselling with our program and have a few minutes to spare, we'd like your feedback. Your answers will help us improve our services.

Take the survey