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County finance supervisor proposes employee assistance program; committee asks staff to pick vendor
Summary
Finance Supervisor Caroline Twombly proposed reinstating a county employee assistance program (EAP) at roughly $3,000–$4,000 annually; the committee asked staff to narrow vendor options and return with a recommendation rather than immediately adopting a contract.
Caroline Twombly, Ashland County finance supervisor, proposed reinstating an employee assistance program to provide immediate mental-health stabilization and critical-incident response for county employees and their household members. Twombly said the county previously had an EAP, and the annual cost for the two vendors she researched would be under $4,000.
Twombly described two vendor options: All 1 Health (formerly Sand Creek), which offers a telehealth-heavy model with a six-session-per-incident design and a robust app, and New Vantage, a smaller firm that emphasizes in-person counseling and offers unlimited manager consultations. "We could ask them for quotes for shorter number of sessions… we could go with whatever we wanted to," Twombly said, describing flexibility in the vendor proposals.
Committee members supported the concept but differed on vendor preference. Pat Kinney urged a provider with in-person counseling capacity, cautioning about AI-driven apps. "If you need somebody to talk to, you need a human being to talk to," Kinney said. Several members suggested using contingency or opioid-related funds (partially) for first-responder support; Twombly said some opioid funding might be allowable to cover the sheriff's office share.
No contract was adopted at the meeting. A motion to adopt the program immediately failed for lack of a second; the committee asked staff to select a preferred vendor, refine costs and funding sources, and bring a recommendation back for approval and budget placement.
