Start Dealng with DOT Supervisor Myths to Make the Biggest Impact on Referrals to Testing

DOT Supervisor Training and the impact of myths create the maintenance of stigma. They also serve avoid EAP referrals. Supevisors are also more likely to blame and anger at addict for performance issues (and they should, but they won't draw a connection to the the solution--treatment and referral to the company EAP.)

Most of these supervisors will also believe that an employee should be terminated rather than helped, believe that is too late to help the employee (i.e.. “I don’t want to refer this employee, I want him fired!”) and buy into moralistic views of addicts which in turn inhibits their self-referral and increase stigma. As you can see, it is a nasty cycle of risk.

The most common misconceptions are "willpower shortcomings" and "psychological explanations." Both fuel denial in anyone with the disease. Personal experience with alcoholism or addiction in your family contributes to beliefs about the illness, its treat-ability, and its cause. Supervisors should understand that it difficult to change, even in face of facts and overwhelming research. Insurance pays for medical problems. That’s why company insurance policies pay for treatment. That's why state governments usually require insurance companies to pay for alcoholism and drug addiction treatment in order to be licensed. Alcoholism is a disease caused by consuming alcohol when there exists an inherited brain and liver chemistry that is without resistance to ethanol tolerance and abnormal metabolizing of alcohol.