All clinical calls begin with an assessment, which determines the appropriate intervention. The assessment covers the presenting issue, support systems, coping strategies, background information, and a risk assessment. The outcome is a plan that covers the short-term focus including goals agreed upon with the participant. For face-to-face counseling referrals, we provide the member with the selected provider’s contact information within two workdays of their initial contact with the program. The counselor will provide services at a location convenient to the member’s home or work address.

At Inova, we have work-life teams dedicated to legal, financial, childcare, eldercare and daily living searches. This division of duties allows our consultants to specialize on finding specific services and focus on one particular task, cutting down the inefficiency of repeatedly jumping from one task to another. All provided referrals are qualified and matched to the specific needs and requirements of the user—100% of the time. At the core of our work-life consultation, resource, and referral service is the understanding that employee concerns do not always fall into clear service categories. Our work-life consultants can search for a variety of options that best fit each caller’s needs.

We contract with a nationwide network of attorneys to provide consultation to employees or family members regarding their legal concerns. Callers can obtain consultation for any legal issue, with the exception of those involving disputes or actions between an employee/dependent and their employer or EAP or for business issues. Following are the top 10 matters for which employees use the legal service:

• Divorce/Custody
• Criminal
• Estate planning/Wills/Trusts
• Real estate
• Landlord/Tenant
• Personal injury/Malpractice
• Debtor/Creditor
• Adoption
• Probate
• Bankruptcy

Employees requiring financial services will begin by completing an intake with a financial consultant and presenting his or her issue(s). In many cases, the consultant can provide issue resolution assistance on the spot. If, after speaking with a financial consultant, issue resolution requires additional preparation, planning, or more specialized financial assistance, the financial consultant will offer the employee an appointment with one of our qualified financial counselors for a detailed telephonic consultation regarding his or her most pressing financial issues. The most common financial issues addressed include:

• Bankruptcy
• Buying a home for the first time
• College fund planning
• Credit card debt (lowering rates; consolidating debt
• Identity theft prevention
• Foreclosure prevention
• Major life event planning
• Retirement planning
• Budgeting (to cope with reduction in household earnings; to reduce debt; to save; household budgeting)

Our child care consultants can offer resources surrounding any situation a family could encounter. Some of these include:

• Mildly ill children
• Emergency back-up care
• Care for school closings & inclement weather
• Day, sports & residential summer camps
• Playgroups for mothers and infants/toddlers
• Prenatal Care/Lactation programs
• Children with special needs resources such as in-home care and schools/special program resources
• Summer volunteer opportunities The website also offers self-search locators for child care, camps, and schools.

When a caller expresses caregiver issues to a work-life consultant, there are a variety of resources that are offered for assistance. Some examples of searches for caregivers include:

• Caregiver support groups
• Respite Care (in-home or facility)
• Organizations dedicated to help with certain diseases
• Particular disease research
• Government programs for the elderly 

The range of lifestyle issues included under the daily living category is vast. Consultants assist individuals with nearly endless resources such as finding care for their pets and managing their day-to-day responsibilities. The list below details just a few of the topics for which our daily living team can provide resource and referral services:

• Adoption
• Chore services/house cleaners
• Emergency services
• Event planning
• Volunteer opportunities
• Transportation and travel services
• Fitness and wellness centers/programs
• Apartment Finder
• Consumer comparisons
• Entertainment services
• Veterinarians
• Moving/relocation services
• Pet sitters/kennels/obedience training
• Home repair (e.g., handymen, Plumbers, contractors, etc.)