Increasingly, they also field calls from people worried about their financial future. That has prompted many employee assistance programs to team up with certified financial planners or develop their own expertise to help people with money woes.

"At one point, legal and financial services used to be enhancements to traditional EAPs. Now it's really just a core piece of what we do," said Rich Paul, a Research Triangle Park-based vice president for ValueOptions, a national EAP services provider based in Virginia.

More than two-thirds of U.S. companies contract with EAPs to offer free counseling to employees with personal problems that get in the way of their work performance. Most people who place a confidential call cite family problems, depression and stress, but strained finances are increasingly the underlying problem, counselors say.

FOR FURTHER INFO Want to learn more about employee assistance, or find a provider in your area? Contact the N.C. Employee Assistance Professionals Association at http://www.eapa.com/ or the national Employee Assistance Professionals Association at (703) 387-1000 or http://www.eapassn.org/

"We get calls from people who, four or five years ago, thought they'd be retiring soon, and now can't even think about that," said Jonathan Hefner, manager of legal and financial services for Minneapolis-based Ceridian, one of the nation's largest EAP providers. "A lot of people are in a bit of a panic about that."

In the past year, calls from people with strictly financial concerns have climbed to where they now comprise between 10 percent and 15 percent of all calls Ceridian gets, he said.

Nico Verykoukis, a licensed clinical social worker with Frank Horton Associates in Raleigh, tells people they have to learn how to manage their own lives.

A generation or two ago, he reminds them, workers could count on employers to provide employment for life, pensions and affordable health care. Social Security was there to supplement whatever savings they had after retirement.

Not so anymore."Most people today will work many jobs in their lifetime. They have to learn how to manage their 401(k) investments if they move from employer to employer," he said. "And health care is more expensive, so you have to take better care of yourself."

It's a new and scary reality for many. "There isn't much of a safety net left out there for people who are in a financial crisis," said Karen Untz, president of Raleigh Employee Assistance Program.

That is why she was pleased when her company recently helped save a family from foreclosure.

A worker at a small Triangle company had fallen behind on his mortgage. His employer offered to advance a loan under the condition that he and his family draw up a budget that allowed repayment. Raleigh Employee Assistance helped the family get their expenses in line and learn how to better manage money, Untz said.

Staff writer Karin Rives can be reached at 829-4521 or mailto:krives@newsobserver.com

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