Costs vary, depending on projected use, the breadth of services offered (see Components of an EAP), and the projected average number of sessions per treatment episode.

Another important factor concerns how many CISDs (Critical Incident Stress Debriefings) an organization can be expected to have in a given year. For example, law enforcement agencies and emergency services organizations benefit greatly from a liberal policy regarding CISDs. But these are costly in terms of staff hours.

The most important cost factor though, concerns the size of the organization. Larger organizations receive better per capita rates. To estimate the cost of a quality program, make sure you and the prospective provider both assume:

• utilization rates will be conservatively measured and will be at least 6%
• that employees will have a minimum of eight sessions readily available to them
• all immediate employee family members are covered by the program's counseling services
• a full range of EAP services will be offered to managers and employees.