Best practice for all our mental health and wellbeing services starts with clinically-validated and evidence based interventions. We are actively involved in research with universities and leading industry associations such as EAPAA to ensure that our services incorporate globally-recognised best practice, and that we are innovating and refining our programs based on our own internal research, feedback and data. Some examples of this include:
 
Sponsoring and actively participating in university research: For example, a clinical trial for a return-to-work program for Australia Post, developed in conjunction with the University of Sydney. As another example, Converge recently participated in a study by University of South Australia, giving access to our clients and customers to enable their team to measure the outcomes from EAP interventions. This study has been published and a follow-up is underway.
 
Partnering with university and other research bodies to apply the results of their research: For example, working with the Phoenix Institute at the University of Melbourne to incorporate their best practice findings in our critical incident responses. This has been a fruitful and close partnership including, for example, them helping us quickly source resources and evidence to support work on trauma during the pandemic. Also our partnership with Sightlines (a division of the Domestic Violence Service Management organisation) where our Executive Director of Clinical Services co-presented training with researchers from Sightlines to ensure our clinicians and others in the industry had the most up to date insights and training in supporting people in situations of family and domestic violence. 
 

• Converge is actively involved in mental health / EAP associations and peak bodies such as the EAPAA. Converge is a level one member of the EAPAA and as such abides by their Code of Ethics and the Australian Standards Guidelines. Our Executive Director, Products, Lana Schwartz, has been a member of the EAPAA Executive since 2017, and EAPAA President since 2019. As part of our commitment to improving the EAP industry, we actively support and present at EAPAA’s conference and professional development events. 
  
  
• Global research partners for our app are sourced from University of St Gallen, RWTH Aachen University, DIW Belin, UNSW, Monash University, University of Melbourne and Aarhus University.
   
• Conducting our own research using data from our services and publishing the results: Converge has a team of experts in the area of mental health and wellbeing who have produced several white papers on relevant topics such as mental fitness and multi-disciplinary models of service delivery. These white papers have been based on verified data and research to produce insights relevant to EAP delivery, and we can share them with Coles Group on request. 
  
  
• Commitment to professional development: All Converge clinicians are required to be current members of their respective industry association (AHPRA, APS, AASW), and we have a comprehensive professional development program internally as well as access to external development opportunities.