I don't know how much EAP programs cost employers but whatever it is it's not worth it!
I've never needed to use it and I'm thankful for that, but someone very close to me is using theirs and it's total garbage.
Firstly, they offer counseling over the telephone: max 3 sessions at 30 minutes per session. After that you're on your own and the quality of counselling they do offer is useless.
Secondly, they are supposed to assist an employee in locating actual professionals who offer real medical and psychological assistance. We're going on three days without any correspondence from the EAP agent while waiting for a referral. We're left to spin in the wind.
Maybe if employers just rolled the costs of the EAP into their employees' paycheques they wouldn't get so depressed in the first place? These EAP programs do more to inflate employers' sense of satisfaction in themselves as ethical, caring companies. The result, instead, is they're pissing away money on a useless service at the cost of staff who would benefit more from the extra income.
My apologies to anyone who has actually been helped by their EAP program. Personally, I think they are a poor excuse for genuinely assisting employees in need of effective support.