OCCUPATIONAL SOCIAL WORK AND EMPLOYEE ASSISTANCE PROGRAMMES: CONTRIBUTIONS FROM THE WORLD OF WORK

Since the inception of the first formal Employee Assistance Programme (EAP) in South Africain 1986 by the Chamber of Mines of South Africa, as a result of a feasibility study completed inDecember 1985, there has been enormous growth in this field of specialisation. Services weresoon expanded beyond the mining industry and infiltrated sectors such as the financial sector,food sector and motor industry, to name a few. The public sector soon followed, but it wasonly in 1996 that a formal commitment was made by the Department of Public ServiceAdministration (DPSA) to issue instructions to government departments on national, provincialand local authority level