Work + Life Classes & Webinars

Given how widespread technology use is among children and teenagers (whether for school or leisure), many parents/caregivers have questions about how to navigate screen time in ways that support children’s digital safety and well-being. This webinar will discuss research findings related to child and adolescent technology use, gaming, sexting, and online exploitation (including image-based sexual abuse and sextortion). Participants will learn how to identify warning signs and indicators of exploitation, where to go for current resources, and how to develop a family safety plan for each person in the home.

Facilitated by: Deb Getz, Re.D., Clinical Associate Professor, IUB School of Public Health, and Herbenick, Debby, Ph.D., Provost Professor and Director, Center for Sexual Health Promotion, IUB School of Public Health

As we observed in our inaugural workshop on menopause, there is much to learn about this life stage that affects millions of women and their families each year. Women experience numerous changes during this life stage. It is natural to have many questions. Join Healthy IU Work + Life as we welcome Dr. Chemen Neal back to answer your questions on menopause.

Facilitated by: Chemen M. Neal, MD, Associate Clinical Professor and Wellness Director, Department of Obstetrics & Gynecology, IUSM

This virtual training shares strategies and resources for building an emotionally safe workplace and a resilient team. Leaders will learn how to spot rising anxiety levels among their team members; ease the concerns of employees who are overwhelmed or worried about the future and engage in effective conversations about emotions in uncertain times. This training will also illustrate how team members at all levels can work together to build an environment that fosters camaraderie, productivity, and calm.

Facilitated by: Angela L. Reese, MSW, LSW, Work Life Analyst, Healthy IU, and Catherine Matthews, JD, Ph.D., Sr. Consultant, Talent, and Organization Development, IU Human Resources

Leadership roles can feel overwhelming at times. Leaders’ responsibilities have evolved to include other priority areas such as employee engagement, mental health, and well-being. When the workload is already demanding, how can these additional areas be attended to? This 2-hour session will explore 13 strategies on how to build the foundation for a successful and dynamic team culture resulting in a thriving work environment. Join other IU leaders to bring the workplace culture to the next level.

Note: To encourage a rich and open dialogue among participants, this session will not be recorded.

Just as sure as the seasons will change from warm days filled with hours of daylight to chilly days with longer nights, we will continue to experience changes at home, work, and beyond. Add in the approaching Holidays that bring an additional sense of responsibility! It can be a recipe for a lot of anxiety.

No matter how you engage in the Holiday Season, we recognize anxiety can present itself. This online webinar will share tips for minimizing anxiety and coping with the holiday season and other seasonal stressors.

Facilitated by: Angela L. Reese, MSW, LSW, Work Life Analyst, Healthy IU, and Catherine Matthews, JD, Ph.D., Sr. Consultant, Talent, and Organization Development, IU Human Resources

Care Talks, by Care.com, are live interactive events where participants can access advice and guidance from expert speakers in the areas of childcare, senior care, financial literacy, emotional health, and more.

To register for an upcoming Care.com webinar, click here.

Watch these free, pre-recorded sessions of EAP’s most popular topics. 

Sign up to receive access to the recordings.

• January - Healthy Habits: New Year's Resolutions

• February - Resiliency: Building Resilience for Optimal Performance

• March - Addiction Awareness: Understanding Addiction

• April - Empathy: Compassion Fatigue

• May - Mental Health 101: R U OK Overview for the Workplace

• June - Understanding Diversity: Understanding Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Belonging: What They Really Mean

• July - Workplace Stress: Dealing with Difficult People

• August - School-Life Balance: Navigating Return to School

• September - Grief and Loss: Coping with Grief

• October - Depression: Understanding Depression

• November - Holiday Mental Health: Holiday Survival Guide

• December - Boundaries: Healthy Workplace Relationships & Developing Supportive Connection

IU HR has partnered with LinkedIn Learning to provide current IU staff, faculty, and students with access to an online library of more than 15,000 expert-led video tutorials and courses. Expand and improve your business, technology and creative skills on your schedule, from any device, anywhere.

Convenience: Access courses when it’s convenient for you from any desktop or mobile device. Courses are made up of short, easy to view videos. Start, stop, and return to learning on your schedule.

Expert Instructors: Learn from a broad spectrum of industry leaders and experts including members of IU’s own faculty.

Healthy IU Work + Life Learning Library

De-escalation Training is two, 2-hour sessions that focus on building skills to become effective at de-escalating and defusing emotional and stressful situations. These sessions focus on understanding and managing your response to stress, understanding and managing the stress of others, and learning effective de-escalation strategies.

Program Facilitator: Tiffany Lemons, MPA, Senior Organization Development Consultant, IU Human Resources

Intergroup Dialogue (IGD) provides a unique forum to explore issues related to social identities. IGD engages in conversations focused on creating understanding. It works through the conflicts and differences that exist based on social identities. This sustained dialogue process involving four carefully structured progression steps (identified above) allows participants to discuss important, yet uncomfortable issues in a safe, supportive environment.

This webinar provides an overview of the Intergroup Dialogue training and offers opportunities for participating in an IGD process co-sponsored by the IUPUI Division of Diversity, Equity & Inclusion and Healthy IU Work + Life.

We all have special feelings about the holidays. For many, it’s a wonderful time of celebration, family gatherings, and joyful times. For others, it’s a time of sadness and feeling overwhelmed. In this seminar, participants examine sources of holiday stress and learn strategies for coping and managing their emotions, time, relationships, and finances. Participants will also share ideas for organizing holiday tasks and managing holiday demands and explore the role of holiday traditions during this unprecedented time of COVID19.

Presented by SupportLinc Employee Assistance Program

Wellness weaves through 8 dimensions of our lives: physical, emotional, environmental, occupational, intellectual, financial, social, and spiritual. Participants will explore how they currently navigate each dimension, with the opportunity to share and spark ideas in a group setting. After this session, participants will be equipped with knowledge and self-awareness to move forward confidently on their wellness journey.

Program Facilitator: Julie Newsom, Healthy IU Communications Specialist, CHWC, CPT

If you’re working from home, setting boundaries between your work and personal life is important. Lena Burt, MSW, Healthy IU Work + Life Intern, shares strategies for creating and maintaining boundaries that simplify and order your environment.

Lena Burt, MSW, Healthy IU Work + Life Intern, provides information and content to help you navigate through a workweek that combines the roles of employee, parent, teacher, and activities coordinator, among other roles. Beyond having a list of activities for your kids, this presentation also reminds you to be kind to yourself and be flexible with outcomes that may look different than you are used to in the past.

In this presentation, Lena Burt, MSW, Healthy IU Work + Life Intern, establishes a foundation of what empathy, compassion, and vulnerability are and explains the benefits of infusing these qualities into your team. She also shares tips for building a team culture based on empathy, compassion, and vulnerability.

Today’s workforce is a melting pot of backgrounds, races, ages, mental and physical capabilities, cultures, and experiences. The challenge is to understand and appreciate these differences and to learn to work in harmony with people who may be different than us. Participants in this course will discover the true meaning of diversity. They will explore the root causes of cultural attitudes, learn techniques for overcoming biases, and discover the positive benefits that diversity brings to them, both as individuals and as part of an organization.

Presented by SupportLinc EAP

Maximizing employees’ strengths to create successful teams requires an objective awareness of those strengths. One way to do this is to examine biases of what is “normal”. In this seminar, participants will be given an opportunity and tools to recognize the benefits of supporting and maximizing the resources that neurodiverse employees bring to the workplace.

Presented by SupportLinc EAP

This session builds upon the more general “Diversity: Experiencing Differences” training with a specific focus on how to support our Black friends, family members, co-workers, and community members.

Presented by SupportLinc EAP

This session builds upon the more general “Diversity: Experiencing Differences” training, with a specific focus on how to support our Asian/Pacific Islander friends, family members, co-workers, and community members.

Presented by SupportLinc EAP

This session builds upon the more general “Diversity: Experiencing Differences” training, with a specific focus on how to support our LBGTQIA+ friends, family members, co-workers, and community members.

Presented by SupportLinc EAP

Supported by a specially-trained team of addiction professionals, Aware offers a best-in-class in-home addiction treatment program backed by both logic and data. Join us in this live panel discussion with Aware Recovery Care professionals who will share how their full continuum home-based care is a pioneer in the in-home mental health and substance use disorder treatment industry, representing true innovation. Participants will also learn about IU Benefits coverage for this program.

Workplace negativity impacts an organization’s productivity, quality of work, and retention of skilled employees. The negativity that is not addressed effectively grows and breeds discontent. Participants in the workshop will identify the “why” of workplace negativity. They will explore the differences between organizational and individual negativity, address “top-down” negativity, learn how to shape negative behaviors into positive behaviors and determine how to become a role model for positive results.

Presented by SupportLinc Employee Assistance Program (EAP)

Maximizing employees’ strengths to create successful teams requires an objective awareness of those strengths. One way to do this is to examine biases of what is “normal”. In this seminar, participants will be given an opportunity and tools to recognize the benefits of supporting and maximizing the resources that neurodiverse employees bring to the workplace.

Presented by SupportLinc EAP

Grief and loss come in many forms and affect us all in many different ways. Sometimes it comes when we experience death or dying, but grief can also reach us when we lose relationships, jobs and financial stability, and beloved traditions or experiences. There is no one right way or right time to process our grief. This year has exposed us all to a myriad of losses, large and small. This session will discuss these topics, the impact grief can have on our lives and our well-being, and possible ways to cope.

Program Facilitators:

Kathleen Gilbert, PhD, FT, Professor Emerita, Applied Health Science, Indiana University-Bloomington

Rebecca Gilbert, PhD, CTRS, Health Educator, Indiana University’s Student Health Center-Bloomington

Do you know what to do if a family member, friend, or co-worker isn’t acting or behaving as they normally would? Would you know what to say to them? Every year, 1 in 4 Americans experiences a mental health issue. Despite these issues being real and common, many of us are unsure how to support a family member, friend, or coworker that we suspect is suffering from a mental illness. Just as you may learn CPR or the Heimlich maneuver, it’s important to understand basic mental health first aid strategies. In this seminar, you’ll learn an easy-to-remember approach to aid others who may be struggling with a mental health issue.

Presented by SupportLinc Employee Assistance Program

At one time or another, almost everyone reports feeling “burned out.” But what does “burnout” really mean? What are the signs of burnout? And if you are experiencing burnout, what can you do about it? In this seminar, participants will learn to identify the root causes of burnout, understand the negative consequences of leaving burnout unaddressed, and learn effective strategies for preventing and overcoming burnout. By learning how to take charge and make changes, participants will be empowered to overcome burnout and create greater balance in their busy lives.

Presented by SupportLinc Employee Assistance Program

A five-part webinar series tailored to help you self-regulate stress. Learn and practice a variety of stress management skills in this free online Healthy IU Work + Life webinar series.

This Healthy IU Work + Life webinar series will explore ways to self-regulate daily stress, such as preserving personal energy, managing zoom fatigue, and practicing self-care. Learn more by viewing or registering for a webinar below.

This seminar is designed to familiarize participants with the elements of change. The goal is to help leaders manage the change process and understand the importance of their role in the process. We will provide an overview of each element and define each as it relates to the leader’s role in change management. Participants will have the opportunity to share examples from their own experience for each of the elements.

Presented by SupportLinc Employee Assistance Program

For many of us, our day-to-day jobs are not only physically demanding but mentally exhausting as well. This seminar will help you to understand what compassion fatigue is, learn to identify the signs and symptoms, and provide you with practical, real-life strategies to help you combat the negative effects of compassion fatigue in your everyday life.

Presented by SupportLinc Employee Assistance Program

IU HR has partnered with LinkedIn Learning to provide current IU staff, faculty, and students with access to an online library of more than 15,000 expert-led video tutorials and courses. Expand and improve your business, technology, and creative skills on your schedule, from any device, anywhere.

Convenience: Access courses when it’s convenient for you from any desktop or mobile device. Courses are made up of short, easy-to-view videos. Start, stop, and return to learning on your schedule.

Expert Instructors: Learn from a broad spectrum of industry leaders and experts including members of IU’s own faculty.

This session is designed to support IU faculty and staff who have been treated for cancer in coping adaptively with cancer-related challenges. Engaging session activities will focus on promoting self-awareness, identifying and pursuing valued goals and actions, and enhancing mindfulness and compassion for self and others.

Program Facilitator:Shelley Johns, PSYD, ABBP, IUSM Assistant Professor of Medicine

In this pre-recorded webinar, offered by Care.com, learn the difference between positive and negative stress, the warning signs of stress overload, and strategies to stay calm, present, and balanced when the going gets tough.

This interactive webinar explores the path from substance use to addiction and the impact substance use has on users’ judgment, health and wellness, productivity, and more. Attendees learn about drug characteristics, common names, signs of individual use, and the effects drugs of abuse have on their users as well as the community.

Presented by Jim Ryser, MA, LMHC, LCAC

This webinar explores, in detail, behavioral signs and symptoms of substance abuse. Attendees learn important tips for supporting loved ones who may be challenged with substance abuse, what to know when seeking help, and what to do when contacting the IU Employee Assistance Program for support.

Presented by Susan S. Day, ACSW, LCSW, LCAC, EAS-C, Manager, Indiana University Employee Assistance Program

What is the difference between mental health and mental wellness? Do you know how to distinguish between the two? Is mental health affecting your life at work, home or play? Do you know how to maintain a life of mental wellness? This webinar will teach you why mental health matters and how to distinguish between it and mental wellness. You will also learn how to recognize signs of when your mental wellness is in jeopardy and how to maintain mental wellness through practiced behaviors, monitoring thoughts and adjusting your actions.

Program Facilitator: Susan S. Day, ACSW, LCSW, LCAC, EAS-C, Indiana University Employee Assistance Program Manager

The holiday season is a time to celebrate, give thanks, and spend time with friends and loved ones. However, it is also a time that triggers many feelings and concerns related to current stressors possibly resulting in an onset of Holiday Blues, Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD), and Depression. This webinar will identify the signs and symptoms of these illnesses and discuss therapeutic treatment options. Restorative activities such as relaxation and focus, exercise, travel, and more will also be shared to assist participants with managing these illnesses.

Program Facilitator: Susan S. Day, ACSW, LCSW, LCAC, EAS-C, Indiana University Employee Assistance Program Manager

This panel discussion will introduce and explore perinatal post-traumatic stress disorder and postpartum depression. Participants will walk away with a clear understanding of what these mental health conditions are, why they occur in some, and how to identify their common signs and symptoms. Participants will also learn how to have a conversation with their healthcare provider to get the treatment and support they need if they or a loved one is suffering from these conditions.

Speakers:

Maryann Chimhanda, MD, MS, Assistant Professor of Clinical Obstetrics & Gynecology, IUSM
Michelle L. Miller, Ph.D., HSPP, Assistant Professor of Psychiatry, IUSM

Menopause marks the beginning of a new era in a woman’s life when her menstrual cycle will cease, and fertility ends. Women experience many changes when going through this stage in life. Therefore, it is natural to have questions. This webinar will discuss signs and symptoms and dispel myths regarding menopause. Participants will learn the benefits of medications and hormone therapy as well as other strategies for managing menopause.

Speaker: Chemen Mzima Neal, MD, Associate Clinical Professor and the Wellness Director, IUSM Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology

This two-part webinar answers common questions that arise among individuals who are aging or caring for an elderly loved one. Find out what to expect when visiting healthcare providers and tips on talking to providers about any health concerns. Learn keys to healthy aging and preventive behaviors for common ailments afflicting the aging, including Dementia and Alzheimer’s. Elements of advanced care planning, such as living arrangements, healthcare coverage (Medicaid, Medicare, etc.), living wills, and healthcare power of attorney are also discussed.

Program Facilitator: Jennifer Carnahan, MD, MPH, MA, IUSM Assistant Professor of Medicine and Research Scientist

Renee Oswalt, RNC-OB, BSN, LCCE, Darla Hughes, BSN, RN, IBCLC, and Angela L. Reese, MSW

Angela L. Reese, MSW

Angela L. Reese, MSW

This workshop shares with supervisors and management how they can support their employees that are breastfeeding. Areas covered include:

• Positive impact of breastfeeding for baby, mom and employer
• Proper environment for expressing milk
• Breastfeeding basics (time it takes, storage, etc.)
• Alternate work scheduling

During and after pregnancy, the body experiences many changes. Some changes may include depression, anxiety, or other perinatal mood disorders (PMD). This webinar explores why PMDs may occur and how to recognize their signs and symptoms. Attendees will learn how to prevent, address and navigate through these disorders - as well as support a partner who may be challenged with them.

Program Facilitator: Birdie Gunyon Meyer, RN, MA, CLC

Is the kitchen table your child’s new classroom? This Fall, back-to-school is anything but normal. Distance learning is becoming the norm which is a huge adjustment for everyone. Devorah Heitner, Ph.D., an expert on young people’s relationship with digital media and technology, will join us to share practical advice and tips for how you can help your kids succeed in this new digital classroom. She’ll also discuss how parents can make this all a little easier on themselves, too.

About the Speaker

Devorah Heitner, Ph.D., is an expert on young people’s relationship with digital media and technology. She’s the author of Screenwise: Helping Kids Thrive (and Survive) in Their Digital World and founder of Raising Digital Natives.

Presented by Care@Work

This four-part class offers clear, beginner-level guidance for developing your own daily meditation practice using breath awareness and focused attention meditation exercises. Each class offers basic instruction in the techniques of meditation in order to cultivate a sense of peace that can be transmitted to your kids and family.

Program Facilitator: Nellie Springston, M.Ed.

Due to advances in technology, we can now see what is happening in a child’s developing brain in response to his or her environment, including different parenting styles. The research is clear that the language and approaches a parent uses are incredibly important for not only optimal brain development, but long-term success and well-being. Join Nellie Springston, M.Ed., Founder of Calma (Calm & Loving Minds Achieve) as she shares research-based language and parenting strategies that focus on connection and communication in order to raise competent, capable kids.

Program Facilitator: Nellie Springston, M.Ed., Founder, CALMA: Calming and Loving Minds Achieve

Learn simple, age-appropriate everyday ways to practice being mindful with your children. Mindfulness is the ability to notice what is happening in the present moment, and practicing mindfulness with kids helps develop skills of emotional and behavioral self-regulation and increases focused attention. Join Nellie Springston, M.Ed. Founder of Calma (Calm & Loving Minds Achieve) as she shares research-based strategies with you to practice with your kids.

Program Facilitator: Nellie Springston, M.Ed

Whether your teen experiences just a little bit of fear or a lot of big anxiety, it can feel overwhelming to know what to do to help. This 2-session series will share practical tips on how to help your teen with all types of worry and anxiety, with specific emphasis on how to talk through those anxious moments.

Program Facilitator: Beth Trammell, Ph.D., HSPP

This past year has been one that has been filled with lots of loss, especially for many of our teens. For some, this may be the first experience with grief, which can seem really hard to navigate. This three-part series will share parenting strategies to help better understand the lens of teen grief, what it looks like, and how to help. We will explore specific signs of depression and suicide and when further intervention is needed. Join us to learn all about teen depression, loss, and grief.

Program Facilitator: Beth Trammell, Ph.D., HSPP