Schools tapping into Cedar Rapids mental health care provider

CORRECTION: Covenant Workplace Solutions has clinics in Cedar Rapids, Marion, Iowa City, Cedar Falls, Dubuque and Davenport. Covenant Workplace Solutions also provides services to Mount Vernon, Solon and Williamsburg school districts, among others. The original article included a city that does not have a Covenant Workplace Solutions and school district that is not currently a customer.

CEDAR RAPIDS — Several Iowa school districts are adding a workplace mental health and wellness partner — based in Cedar Rapids — to help educators manage their mental health and achieve their goals.

Covenant Workplace Solutions offers an employee assistance program that — like many of these programs — offers confidential assessments, short-term counseling, referrals and follow-up services for employees as part of their benefits. It also is trying to reduce the stigma around mental health in the workplace and make it easier for employees to access services, said Chad Charkowski, an owner and head of sales at Covenant Workplace Solutions.

The average use of employee assistance programs in the United States is about 5.5 percent of workers, according to the National Business Group on Health, which describes itself as a voice in health care policy.

Covenant Workplace Solutions was launched in 2020 as a division of Covenant Family Solutions, a local mental health provider, to help organizations meet the need for workplace mental health services.

Last year, Workplace Solutions became its own company striking a strategic partnership with Covenant Family Solutions to deliver services in areas where new clinics are opened. Currently, there are clinics in Cedar Rapids, Marion, Iowa City, Cedar Falls, Dubuque and Davenport.

Recently, the Iowa City Community School District became the 14th and largest school district in the state, with about 2,300 employees, to contract Covenant Workplace Solutions.

“We know we’re doing something good when a district like Iowa City puts their trust in us to take care of their employees,” Charkowski said. “That’s a huge feather in our cap.”

Covenant Workplace Solutions also provides services to Mount Vernon, Solon and Williamsburg school districts. Other districts also have employee assistance programs with other providers.

The Gazette spoke with Charkowski to learn more about the mental health services provided to educators and other professionals through its program.

Q: Why do you believe you are seeing a growing demand for your services from educators?

A: I think it’s always been there, but educators are spread so thin. (Mental health) can be one of those things that’s swept under the rug. “I’ll take care of people before I take care of myself.” That only works for so long. Educators were on the front lines of the pandemic just like doctors and nurses.

Pre-pandemic, well over 26 percent of Americans suffered from diagnosable mental disorders in a given year, according to Johns Hopkins (Medicine). They haven’t come out with post-pandemic stats yet because they’re probably so alarming.

Q: How does your employee assistance program work?

A: Every person is a little different … when someone calls in, we meet them wherever they are. Not everyone is ready to pick up the phone and schedule a therapy session with a licensed therapist.

It’s a one-stop shop for whatever is going on with that person — anxiety, depression, marriage counseling, grieving.

We have a member portal that has anything and everything you could possibly imagine. A big piece is educating them on carving out 15 to 20 minutes a day to proactively work on their own mental health and wellness. We have self-help courses about overcoming compassion fatigue, burnout, practicing mindfulness and combating anxiety.

Sometimes what they need is legal or financial information. We set them up with a professional — maybe it’s to help them with budgeting or taxes. Those simple things can become big stressors when left unattended.

We have life coaching that focuses on personal growth and development. We have a certified fitness coach and certified nutrition coach on staff.

They can use the tools and resources from the courses they’ve taken online almost as a road map for their first therapy session. It gives them the confidence to take it further.

It’s not just for the employees, but also for their immediate family members in their household. That’s very important to us. We provide eight sessions per year for each family member as needed.

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