Chamber of commerce initiative inspired by opioid epidemic.

HYANNIS — To help local businesses deal with such issues as the opioid epidemic, the Cape Cod Chamber of Commerce and Rogers & Gray Insurance are offering employee assistance plans for just $9.50 per person per year.

All of the estimated 117,000 year-round workers at Cape Cod businesses are eligible if their employers sign up for the new plan, Wendy Northcross, chief executive officer of the Cape chamber, said Monday.

Employee assistance plans are short-term, confidential, telephone-based counseling services that help people with a range of problems, including substance abuse, grief, mental health concerns, divorce and other stressful events. If the problem is too big to be dealt with in three phone sessions, the counselors will work to coordinate services in the local area and match them with the employee's existing insurance coverage.

It could, for example, take four hours of research for the average person to figure out where to get addiction treatment, said John Foley, vice president of consulting and employee benefits at Rogers & Gray. The employee assistance counselor will do that work, becoming "the quarterback" to connect the dots of what will work best for the employee or the employee's family member.

This saves time, reduces stress and raises productivity, he added.

The assistance plan also offers consulting and unlimited advice to supervisors to help with tricky conversations and situations regarding an employee who may be struggling. If a traumatic incident occurs at the worksite, the program will provide counseling services. For the company that is too small to have a human resources department, the advice from the employee assistance counselor can be extremely helpful, Foley said.

The idea of providing a Capewide employee assistance plan arose in June, when chamber members were discussing ways to help business owners with the opiate epidemic, Northcross said.

"The issue of substance abuse is pretty well-documented," she said. "We've been trying to think of what we can do as a business community."

Most large companies offer such assistance to their employees. But most small companies have never heard of them, Northcross said.

Since 91 percent of Cape businesses have under 20 employees — 61 percent have four or fewer employees — it is safe to say most Cape Cod workers do not have this benefit, she said.

The Cape has close to 9,000 companies with 117,000 year-round employees and another 20,000 seasonal workers, Northcross said.

By treating the region as one big consortium, the Cape chamber was able to get an extremely low price for the services of Reach EAP, a North Carolina-based company. It has more than 30 years of experience in employee assistance plans and a particular expertise in substance abuse counseling, Foley said.

To get the service, a business must first enroll. Even a self-employed contractor or fisherman who works alone may sign up for the program as a business owner. The benefit extends to employees' family members as well, Northcross said.

The company does not have to offer Rogers & Gray insurance products to employees or provide other insurance benefits at all, Northcross said.

The chamber is embarking on a public relations campaign to explain the program to local business owners. Workshops will be held Jan. 26, Feb. 16, March 2, March 23 and April 18.

More information is available online at www.whycapecod.org/reach-eap.

— Follow K.C. Myers on Twitter: @kcmyerscct.