Can the "Covid Stress Scale" Be A Helpful Assessment Tool for EAPs?

Suffice it to say that everyone is worried about COVID-19, its effect on their life, and whether or not someone they love or care about will get sick.

However, some people are more worried than others. Really worried--so much so that they suffer deficits in social and occupational functioning.

A next door neighbor of my friend has barely come out of her house during the pandemic, and has taken extraordinary measures to avoid contact with others. She has not socialized with neighbors in over a year.

The pandemic has exacerbated a two pre-existing conditions--in this case PTSD from the death of a prior spouse and an anxiety disorder.

Valuable employees with extraordinary capabilities can be affected in severely adverse ways as they seek to cope with the pandemic. These individuals could be employees in your workplace.

Can you help them? 

Social scientists have developed the COVID Stress Scale (CSS) as a way to help people gain awareness for unhelpful thinking and behaviors in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

You can read about the COVID Stress Scale here, and how it was developed. You can see the assessment questions section only here: questionnaire tool here.

This tool may be helpful with clients or can be the substance of an educational presentation. Using it may be a an excellent way to demonstrate your program's ability to be relevant and valuable during the pandemic.

The scale appears rigorously researched, but I did not see a definitive "score sheet" per se or "diagnosis grade" associated with the list of relevant questions. 

I will address the COVID Stress Scale, or bit of it, in the Frontline Employee newsletter next month to help employees gain more awareness for their response to the pandemic, and how the EAP can help. Look for it.
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