Help employees struggling with substance abuse get on the path to recovery.
Alcohol and drug use cost U.S. employers more than $128.6 billion a year in lost productivity and an additional $15.8 billion in employee healthcare costs. Above and beyond the monetary costs, accidents and fatalities exact a terrible human cost. Clearly, helping your employees address their drug or alcohol use is in everyone’s best interest.
The impact of alcoholism and drug dependence in the workplace often focuses on four major issues:
- Premature death/fatal accidents
- Injuries/accident rates
- Absenteeism/extra sick leave
- Loss of production
Additional problem areas can include:
- Tardiness/sleeping on the job
- After-effects of substance use (hangover, withdrawal) affecting job performance
- Poor decision making
- Loss of efficiency
- Theft
- Lower morale of co-workers
- Increased likelihood of having trouble with co-workers/supervisors or tasks
- Preoccupation with obtaining and using substances while at work, interfering with attention and concentration
- Illegal activities at work including selling illicit drugs to other employees
- Higher turnover
- Training of new employees
- Disciplinary procedures
In addition, family members living with someone’s alcoholism or drug use may also suffer significant job performance related problems — including absenteeism, lack of focus, increased health-related problems and use of health insurance.
Alcohol Use
Two specific kinds of drinking behavior significantly contribute to the level of work-performance problems: drinking right before or during working hours (including drinking at lunch and at company functions), and heavy drinking the night before that causes hangovers during work the next day.
Some facts about alcohol in the workplace:
- Workers with alcohol problems were 2.7 times more likely than workers without drinking problems to have injury-related absences.
- A hospital emergency department study showed that 35 percent of patients with an occupational injury were at-risk drinkers.
- Breathalyzer tests detected alcohol in 16% of emergency room patients injured at work.
- Analyses of workplace fatalities showed that at least 11% of the victims had been drinking.
- Large federal surveys show that 24% of workers report drinking during the workday at least once in the past year.
- One-fifth of workers and managers across a wide range of industries and company sizes report that a co-worker’s on- or off-the-job drinking jeopardized their own productivity and safety.
Some facts about drugs in the workplace:
- Workers who report having three or more jobs in the previous five years are about twice as likely to be current or past year users of illegal drugs as those who have had two or fewer jobs.
- 70% of the estimated 14.8 million Americans who use illegal drugs are employed.
- Marijuana is the most commonly used and abused illegal drug by employees, followed by cocaine, with prescription drug use steadily increasing.
What Can Employers Do?
Work can be an important and effective place to address alcoholism and other drug issues by establishing or promoting programs focused on improving health. Many individuals and families face a host of difficulties closely associated with problem drinking and drug use, and these problems quite often spill over into the workplace. By encouraging and supporting treatment, employers can dramatically assist in reducing the negative impact of alcoholism and addiction in the workplace, while reducing their costs.
Without question, establishment of an Employee Assistance Program (EAP) is the most effective way to address alcohol and drug problems in the workplace. EAPs deal with all kinds of problems and provide short-term counseling, assessment, and referral of employees with alcohol and drug abuse problems, emotional and mental health problems, marital and family problems, financial problems, dependent care concerns, and other personal problems that can affect the employee’s work. This service is confidential. These programs are usually staffed by professional counselors under a contract with EAP providers. Additionally, employers can address substance use and abuse in their employee population by: implementing drug-free workplace and other written substance abuse policies; offering health benefits that provide comprehensive coverage for substance use disorders, including aftercare and counseling; reducing stigma in the workplace; and educating employees about the health and productivity hazards of substance abuse through company wellness programs.
At LifeQuest’s Intensive Outpatient Treatment Program we specialize in substance use and co-0ccurring disorders. We are EAP certified, and accept most major insurance provider’s coverage for mental health and substance abuse
To learn more about our services and to get help with the admissions process, call us anytime day or night. We’re always here for you when you need us most.
1.“The Economic Costs of Drug Abuse in the United States 1992-2002,” Office of National Drug Control Policy
Information taken from the National Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence, Inc. (NCADD)