Introducing Equilibrium, ICMA's new member benefit for managers, assistants, and members in transition. Serving the public in the role of manager or assistant is rewarding yet demanding work. To bring the best leadership to your organization, you need to be resilient, be balanced between work and life, and have access to premium services to assist you.

Equilibrium is ICMA's way to assist you in that goal, by providing tools and resources for the resilient manager. Offered on the LifeWorks platform, the benefits and services are designed to help with many of life's questions, issues, and concerns. It is a confidential service, available, 24/7, 365 days a year.

Share the tools and resources with your family

After you create your personal account on the platform, you can invite up to five dependents to join Equilibrium. Your dependents will receive an email invite from LifeWorks to join, so they can benefit from the helpful tools and resources.

How to use the Equilibrium Member Assistance Program

Equilibrium, powered by LifeWorks, is a confidential service provided by ICMA that offers help with personal and work-related issues. Equilibrium provides professionally trained advisors available to help with family problems, marital concerns, financial and legal matters, stress, depression, and other issues affecting your personal or work life.

Equilibrium is confidential, and help is available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year. 

Equilibrium offers support with mental, financial, physical, and emotional well-being. Whether you have questions about handling stress at work and home, parenting and childcare, managing money, or health issues, you can turn to Equilibrium for a confidential service that you can trust. Following is information on how Equilibrium can help and how it works.

How Equilibrium can help you.

All the ways Equilibrium can help

Accessing Equilibrium

If you are or someone close to you is going through a difficult time, remember this member assistance program is only a phone call away. 

Dealing with a personal or work issue

Equilibrium can provide support, referrals, and resources related to many issues. You and those close to you are encouraged to seek help early, before a minor problem becomes more serious. Equilibrium is designed to address short-term issues and to identify resources and referrals for emergency and long-term issues. When in doubt, contact Equilibrium for help or support. 

Personal and Work Issues

Struggling with addiction

Resolving addiction problems, whether mild, moderate, or severe, can be one of life's most difficult challenges. Equilibrium's Professional Counseling Services are designed to support any work, health, or life concern. Connect to Equilibrium today and make use of the available expert help – strictly confidential and at no cost.

Struggling to maintain work-life balance?

Life is hectic for working professionals as we balance our home and work responsibilities. It is like a juggling act, with constant pressure. Equilibrium's wide variety of services provide you and your family with accessible tools and resources to help you achieve the right balance—anytime, anywhere.

Call toll-free, any time, 24/7, 365 days a year

1. Call: If you're using the LifeWorks mobile app, you can call with one tap from your smartphone.
2. Provide your name and the provider name, ICMA, to your advisor. Your information will be kept confidential. Your advisor will ask for the provider name so they can confirm the type of service available to you, along with other important health insurance and benefits information.
3. Share your concerns with a professional advisor for expert advice, strategies, and next steps.
4. Arrange with an advisor on how, when, and where you want to be contacted if follow-up is required.

Management Consultations

These confidential one-on-one telephonic consultations are available 24/7 for managers. Our counselors can help with advice and guidance to help you manage the unique and sensitive situations you’re facing in the workplace. It could be workplace conflict, how to help a grieving employee, or addressing a mental health concern; let us help.

Call for a management consultation on how to handle sensitive employee issues; you can explore options, brainstorm solutions, and work on action plans. With Equilibrium, you can take advantage of many resources to help you lead and motivate, handle performance issues, and take care of yourself and the people you manage. Call to receive advice and expertise in areas that you may not specialize in.

How Equilibrium Can Help with Complex Workplace Issues

Management consultations can support managers, supervisors, and human resources professionals with addressing a variety of employee concerns. If you’re facing a difficult employee issue and need objective support to help you develop a plan, contact LifeWorks to request a confidential, dedicated appointment with a management consultant. Management consultations are telephonic sessions that work in conjunction with your organization’s decision and resolution processes. These are a supplement to—not a replacement for—your own HR solutions, policies, and procedures. LifeWorks’ professionals provide objective, third-party support, and their role is to ask reflective questions to help you analyze the issues. We’ll support you with a framework for effective problem-solving and the development of organization-specific solutions.

A management consultation can support you in understanding and dealing with the following types of issues:

• Employee performance
• Employee conflict
• Sexual harassment or harassment in the workplace
• Discrimination
• Substance abuse
• Employees suffering from depression or other forms of mental illness
• Workplace violence and anger in the workplace
• Organizational change events such as restructuring and layoffs.

Stress keeping you up at night?

By understanding what areas of your life cause the greatest stress, we can help you make important changes so that you can sleep better at night. Our confidential Professional Counseling Services and enormous library of online resources—available through Equilibrium—can help you and your family with goal setting and action planning,

Stress: we all experience it. Some stress—called positive or eustress—is useful, motivating us to move forward, reach our goals, and most importantly, to stay safe. However, a prolonged, high level of stress is negative stress, and it can compromise your health. If unmanaged, stress can lead to depression, anxiety, and burnout.

If you or those you care about are struggling with grief, fear, anxiety, or anger, help is available. Call an advisor anytime for counseling, guidance, and advice on managing stress and boosting your well-being.

Wealth of well-being tips, information, and exercises

• Stress Management toolkit
• Coping with Money Worries
• Managing Stress as a Family
• Practicing Mindfulness to Reduce Stress Podcast
• Quick Tips for Managing Stress
• Relaxation Tips to Help You Beat Stress
• When a Couple is Under Stress
• Understanding Different Types of Meditation
• Five Senses of Meditation
• Tree Grounding Meditation
• Progressive Muscle Relaxation
• Deep Breathing Exercise.

24/7 Confidential Counseling

Sometimes the easiest way to get help is to talk to someone. Contact an advisor, toll-free anytime, 24/7, to speak with a caring advisor for guidance, resources, and a referral to a counselor for face-to-face, telephonic, or video sessions for short-term, solution-focused counseling. All counselors are experienced therapists with a minimum of a master's degree in psychology, social work, educational counseling or other social services field. There are also many online self-help resources available on the platform.

CareNow

What is CareNow?

CareNow service gives you access to a range of programs designed to help with anxiety, depression, and stress. New topics are continuously added, so check the platform frequently for more information on other areas where you might need support.

How it Works

CareNow gives you the flexibility you need to choose your own path when it comes to care—from participating in exercises and taking assessments, to listening to podcasts and watching videos—everything is focused on helping you make positive changes.

What support is available?

Get the support you need by selecting the program with which you are most comfortable. CareNow offers interactive content, exercises, podcasts, videos, meditation, and more, so that you can explore the topic you want, the way you want.

How to access CareNow

You can get started whenever you are ready. Simply access the Equilibrium on the Lifeworks web platform or app, then select “Wellbeing” and click on “CareNow.”

Need parenting help?

Childcare services, available through Equilibrium, help you connect with specialists who can provide resources through research and referral in order to assist you with a variety of issues relating to taking care of your children. It may take time to find the perfect fit for your child, but you’ll gain peace of mind from taking the time to do a careful search. LifeWorks is here with the support you need to make the right choice.

Supportive Counseling

A consultant will work with you to explore various childcare options, and with the use of the LifeWorks research team, identify local childcare agencies and facilities in your area.

Childcare

A LifeWorks specialty consultant can help to identify your specific needs, preferences, and parameters. The consultant can provide guidance on interviewing a childcare agency, and the questions you should ask possible caregivers. The consultant can connect you to services that support your type of childcare needs in your area.

Need help with your budgeting and finances?

Money management can be stressful, as we wrestle with paying bills, managing debt, and saving for the future. Take advantage of confidential expert help—at no cost—with Financial Support Services available through Equilibrium. Connect today with financial specialists that can help answer your questions and build a plan.

Financial Well-Being

Financial wellbeing—often referred to as “financial wellness”—is now understood to be as important as physical and mental wellness. It’s about more than having money in the bank. Financial wellbeing means feeling in control of your finances, being able to handle a financial setback, and being on track to achieve your financial and life goals (including having a plan for retirement). Equilibrium offers a toolkit packed with resources to set you, and those who may depend on you, on the path toward financial security. You’ll find resources on understanding the basics of budgeting and cash flow, saving, getting out of debt, and being prepared for an emergency or changed financial circumstances.

Toolkits

• Assessing your financial well-being
• Budgeting
• Debt
• Saving
• Planning for the future
• Financial change
• Stress, money, and emotions
• and more!

Well-being

The importance of prevention and self-care and how Equilibrium supports emotional well-being.

Prevention also works to support mental health! Equilibrium can help you put into practice techniques to manage stress, and put into practice preventative strategies to support emotional well-being.

Contact an advisor any time, 24/7, to speak confidentially with a caring, professional consultant, who can help you:

• Understand the value of self-care and of leisure time
• Recognize the importance of talking about your stressors with friends, family, co-workers, or professionals you trust
• Introduce small changes to help you balance work and life more effectively
• Distinguish between positive and negative stress, identify what’s causing you stress, and learn ways to manage unhealthy stress
• Learn how to practice mindfulness, meditation, or deep breathing techniques
• Build resilience and coping skills so you’re able to face tough challenges with confidence and weather disappointment or failure
• Become more self-aware so you know your limits, and become better able to recognize the signs and symptoms of a possible mental health problem
• Adopt healthy sleep habits, a healthy diet that nourishes your body, and an exercise routine that boosts your energy.

Log in to the Equilibrium website any time to access a wide range of resources on mental health issues—from creating happiness to practicing positive thinking; and from dealing with stress, anger, or anxiety, to living with depression, schizophrenia, or addiction.

Wellness

• Challenges (team-based or individual)
• Health, wellness, and fitness challenges encourage behavioral change for improved health and well-being
• Digital & telephonic health coaching
• Evidence-based, clinical interventions and strategies to actively and safely encourage behavioral change.

Discover Your Total Health Score

Wouldn’t it be nice to have one simple score to express your overall level of health, and help you understand what you’re doing right and areas for improvement? With the Total Health Score, the higher the score, the more optimal your current health. Discover your score and complete the easy-to-use Total Wellbeing Assessment on the Equilibrium platform and you’ll be given your score. The assessment measures your health in all 4 pillars of total well-being. On the platform, select the Wellbeing tab ➞ Assessments.

LIFT Session Fitness

Exercise is so important to your physical and mental well-being and is a key component of self-care during this turbulent time. While many of us are encouraged to stay home and practice social distancing, there are still great options available to us to keep active and stay healthy. We want to remind you that you have access to LIFT session, our virtual fitness provider, through the Equilibrium website on the LifeWorks platform. LIFT’s goal is to make fitness sessions available to anyone, from any location, and on-demand. LIFT session virtual fitness programs can help you stay active from the comfort and safety of your home, while providing you with consistency in your fitness regime during this period of constant change.

Once registered, you will get access to automated fitness journeys customized for your goals and capabilities, as well as access to live chat with coaches for any fitness, nutrition, and recovery questions you might have. It’s a great way to de-stress and let the endorphins kick in!

LIFT provides a wide variety of fitness offerings that makes working out convenient, easy, and efficient. You can complete world-class fitness workouts from anywhere.

Legal Resources

Receive the legal support you need for free! Whether it’s a question about divorce, real estate, writing a will, estate planning, handling a legal dispute, or finding a lawyer in your area, Equilibrium can help:

Document Preparation

Equilibrium offers an online tool on the LifeWorks platform that provides valuable information and guidance on drafting legal forms such as a will, power of attorney, complaint letter, and more.

Legal Consultation

You can be referred to a lawyer through the Legal Referral Service for a free, 30-minute telephonic consultation in almost all areas of law, except for business and employment law.

Local Attorney Referral

If needed, advisors will help you find a licensed attorney in your area to provide legal advice and representation. If you want to retain a lawyer from our network, you might be eligible to receive a discount off retainer fees.

Legal Library

An easy-to-browse legal library with hundreds of articles, answers to FAQs, and legal information on such topics as bankruptcy, divorce and family law, estate planning, immigration, landlord/tenant issues, and dozens of other issues.

Perks and Exclusive Offers

Save hundreds of dollars per year with perks. Planning a family holiday, doing some grocery shopping or getting married and buying a home? Visit the Perks section of the website to discover hundreds of dollars of savings on daily purchases and all the important things in life that matter to you.

Save Money PERKS

Exclusive Offers: Freshly updated selections of online and in-store discounts to save on purchases, big and small.

Online Cashbook

You can shop online for hundreds of great brands and earn cashback on every purchase!

Gift Cards

You can instantly buy discounted digital gift cards and use them either online or in-store.

Equilibrium is a free ICMA member benefit 

Equilibrium is a premium service provided by ICMA at no cost to ICMA managers, assistants, and members in transition. That means you pay nothing to use it. However, if you accept a referral to services outside of the assistance program, you will be responsible for costs that may be associated with resources external to the program. Eligible ICMA members (managers, assistant managers, and members in transition) received an email invite with log-in information. Contact member benefits and services or call 202-962-3680 to get log-in access to the platform.

More about Referral Services

Examples of referral services that may require costs:

• If the advisor refers you to an outside attorney for a legal matter, you would be expected to cover those costs.
• If the advisor refers you to a counselor for ongoing (long-term) counseling and the referral is through your medical benefits, co-pays or deductibles may apply
• If the referral is not covered by your medical benefits, you would be responsible for fees charged by the specialist or counselor.

The advisor will work with you to find the most appropriate and cost-effective help to address your needs.

Equilibrium also has an app!

So you can feel supported, connected, and rewarded wherever you are! With the innovative app, you can access qualified support for your mental, physical, social, and financial well-being, any time, from anywhere.

• Search for resources and tools on topics ranging from family and life to health, money, and work.
• Connect to information and updates through the app’s News Feed.
• Take advantage of Perks, helping you save money on daily essentials and luxuries from top brands and retailers.

What’s more, the app acts like your digital wallet card. You can call an advisor with just one tap—toll-free, 24/7—for expert advice, resources, and referrals. Download the LifeWorks app today for convenient access to well-being support! The app is available in the Apple App Store and on Google Play. Search for "Lifeworks" click "Log in" and enter the credentials that you received via email. 

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Get started today!

An email invitation with login access was sent to eligible ICMA members (managers, assistants, and members in transition. If you need login access, contact member benefits and services or call 202-962-3680 to get log-in access to the platform.

For technical support, issues with the website and/or app, submit a ticket at help.lifeworks.com