Employee & Family Assistance Plan

To learn more about the Employee and Family Assistance Plan, a presentation can be requested.

An employee is eligible for EFAP benefits depending on their employment offer or contract.

Eligible dependents include your spouse and unmarried, unemployed dependent children, including natural, adopted or step-children for whom you or your spouse have legal custody. Your spouse and children must reside in Canada or the United States. An eligible dependent of a University of Calgary employee in Qatar must be a Canadian citizen. Please visit the UCQ website for more information about residency and citizenship requirements.

Postdoctoral Scholars 

All postdoctoral scholars and their dependents are eligible for EFAP services. For further information on benefits, please visit the postdoctoral scholar webpage.   

Spouse
The opposite or same sex person to whom you are lawfully married as evidenced by a legally certified document of marriage or who has, for at least 12 months, been continuously living with you in a role like that of a marriage partner (common-law).

Child
Your natural or adopted child, stepchild or child of your spouse who is under age 21, unmarried, unemployed and not eligible under an employer plan and dependent on you for financial support.

Overage Dependent (Student)
A dependent child who is over the age of 21 but less than 25, attending an accredited educational institution, college, or university on a full-time basis. Confirmation of student status is required each year.

Overage Dependent (Disabled)
A dependent child over the age of 21 who is dependent on you for support, maintenance and care, due to a mental or physical disability. Prior to your child turning 21, documentation is required to continue coverage.

The EFAP offers short-term, solution-focused counselling. Within the context of a solution-focused model, you receive the right number of sessions to reach resolution. If longer term counselling, hospital treatment or specialized services (such as medical, legal or financial help) are required, your counsellor will discuss referral options with you to get you connected with the most appropriate support.

It is important to remember that each presenting issue is assessed independently of each other. For example, if you have completed your sessions for anxiety, and now you would like counselling for a relationship issue, you can access the program again and the assessment process will be applied again, independent of what was done for your earlier presenting issue. Access to the program for any number of issues is unlimited.

If you feel your issue has still not been resolved please call the EFAP provider to book an appointment and have it assessed by a counsellor.

Confidentiality is the cornerstone of the EFAP. The program allows all EFAP users to discuss any life issue in complete confidence, whether speaking with a Masters’ level counsellor or another professional for one of the specialty services (e.g. Lawyer or Registered Dietician).

Our EFAP provider's standards of confidentiality are the same as those used by medical doctors in Canada. You and your family may rest assured that all conversations and dealings with the EFAP will remain strictly confidential within the limits of the law*.

A number of things are done to ensure confidentiality and privacy:

• appointments scheduled for privacy. No two persons from the University of Calgary will have back-to-back appointments with the same counsellor
• private offices, off-site
• this program is voluntary, no referral is needed. You can contact us directly
• phone messages never left without prior permission
• flexible scheduling
• reports made to the University of Calgary contain only aggregate data on usage and trends utilizing non-identifying information
• secure record-keeping

LifeWorks is fully accredited by the Council on Accreditation (COA), an objective and recognized body for EFAP provider accreditation, which also ensures organizations meet the standards of confidentiality.

*Our EFAP provider is required by law to disclose what would otherwise be confidential information when there is a risk of serious injury to oneself or others, there is suspicion of child abuse as defined by provincial legislation, or when served with a properly executed court order (i.e. subpoena).

For routine (non-urgent) cases, you can expect to see a counsellor for an in-person appointment within three business days, and depending on location, an employee can have an appointment as soon as 24 hours from the time of the intake call. The wait time may vary if you have a specific preference for appointment time such as evening or weekend appointments. Immediate urgent support is always available by telephone 24 hours a day/7 days per week.

If you have not heard back from a counsellor to confirm an appointment time within 48-72 hours, please call the service again. Due to the confidential nature of the service, a message cannot be left when permission to do so was not granted. In such cases, you may not be aware of efforts made to reach you. When they do have permission to leave a message, there are times when it may not have reached you successfully.  

If the first counsellor you see is not the right fit for you, call the toll-free number again and they will look for another counsellor that best matches the nature of the issue and your preference for time and location.