An un­for­tu­nate trait of our na­tion­al per­sona seems to be strong re­ac­tions to per­ceived so­ci­etal ills, af­ter the ills have oc­curred. We of­ten do not ac­knowl­edge the need for a par­tic­u­lar skill or ser­vice un­til it is too late. An ef­fec­tive em­ploy­ee as­sis­tance provider (EAP) is pre­cise­ly the re­source that was need­ed to be con­sult­ed to quick­ly de­vel­op an ap­pro­pri­ate plan of ac­tion to help the af­fect­ed Min­istry of Gen­der Af­fairs em­ploy­ee who has been ward­ed at the St Ann's Psy­chi­atric Hos­pi­tal against her will.

Had this been done, I am cer­tain the em­ploy­ee would have re­ceived ap­pro­pri­ate care for her sit­u­a­tion and be spared the neg­a­tive pub­lic­i­ty that has en­sued. Out­side of T&T, EAPs are con­sid­ered great­ly val­ued re­sources to all work or­gan­i­sa­tions. It is time that our busi­ness com­mu­ni­ty em­braces this idea al­so.

Daryl C Joseph

Via e-mail