The City of Williamsport is paying $4,000 a year to help protect its employees’ mental states.

City Council recently approved the contract with ESI Employee Assistance Group as presented by Donna Fuller, city human resources director.

Fuller said she’d been asked by several departments to find providers that can help them with the mental health of employees and their families.

The company can provide three free sessions to employees and their family members who reside with the employee.

ESI works with city health insurance so it is a reduction to the cost of the city health insurance if they use these services, Fuller said.

The program will be monitored and reported on next year.

“We currently have a cost for mental health in the city per employee and member,” she said.

It is $43.35 per year or about $1,860 a year in city health care expenditure.

This program costs the city $4,000. It covers all members of the city and the people who live within their homes.

The goal or target is that it will pay for itself the first year by having people who currently use the city health care to provide these services.

It will allow them to set up with the mental health counselors and have discussions on their mental health.

It also provides training for use of software, such as Microsoft Office, and supports management.

by providing management with training classes that can be taken on their own time from their home online.

The council was provided a flyer that discussed all of the programs that the program offers.

It is a basic cost of $25 per employee for this year, Fuller said.

Fuller said she worked with this company for 10 years at Wire Rope and said the prices do not increase.

Lycoming College, Williamsport Area School District and River Valley Transit Administration use the program as do many manufacturers in the area.

As a program offered I certainly hope that it is utilized and can benefit from it, Councilwoman Liz Miele said.

The contract was to go into effect Sept. 1.

Such counseling could easily pay for itself for this nominal cost by preventing a catastrophic incident in the city, explained Councilman Eric Beiter who did not want to see this tabled when it came up for a vote earlier. The table motion was rescinded and the contract voted on by a 7-0 count and approved.