Seven Reasons Business Organizations Should Offer Employee Drug and Alcohol Awareness Education

I haven't spoken to you in probably a month, but I wanted to ask if you provide education and awareness to employees

concerning alcohol and other drugs of abuse. There are powerful reasons for doing so.

There is no government mandate for most industries to do employee awareness training in substance abuse (railroads have had such a mandate since 1986), but I want to give you several reasons why you should consider it no matter what industry your associated with.

They deserve it. There is a terrible opioid crisis going on right now, alcoholism is never going away, pot use is increasing, and employees and their families are terribly affected by these problems.

You may not hear about the brother of your lead supervisor who is addicted to heroin or the sister of your secretary who moved into a homeless shelter last month, but these issues are pervasive in every company.

Employees may see TV commercials, or even hear the President of the United States talk about drug problems, but they aren't getting education about these issues from any source at home or in the community. Workplace wellness programming that you can easily provide is really the only way they can get it.

They can't get it anywhere. Employees aren't getting information about substance and prevention from TV shows or newspapers. They aren't learning about alcohol abuse, dealing with teens, stimulants, opioids, depressants, marijuana dangers, enabling, getting help, helping someone who doesn't want help, self-diagnosis, dispelling myths, and many more topics. (We cover all these things in our training program for employee drug and alcohol awareness.)

Employees have drug problems. Right now, there are employees on your payroll with drug and alcohol addiction problems. Most are in early or middle stage addiction. Very late stage addiction is obvious, and you may have seen these problems in the past. More problems are coming. It is only a matter of time.

Problems on staff. Statistically, about 5-7% of employees have drug and/or alcohol problems. But about 12-17% of your employees have family members at home or dependents with substance abuse problems.

Education helps employees take action and stop waiting for a massive crisis to ensue--one that could, and usually

does affect the employer in some way.

Employers help their bottom line. If you have a drug free workplace policy, you have a business rationale for educating employees. A policy is important, but it is only part of the prevention puzzle.

The effect of training is employees self-diagnosing a personal problem, seeking help on their own -- or, more likely, getting help faster when the next drug or alcohol related crisis occurs. And, of course, intevening sooner with a dependent.

It's the right thing to do. Education is low cost, easy, quick, and memorable. Simply said, you're leaving your organization exposed without doing it. Substance abuse isn't easily spotted. Instead it is felt in absenteeism, turnover, stolen tools, conflicts, lateness, time theft, lack of availability, accidents and dents on vehicles, long lunch hours, employees missing on the job, selling drugs at work, testy and belligerent workers, conflicts, fights, forgetfulness, and your firing employees with skills because of unreliability.

You'll save lives. Training employees can save a life or the lives of dependents, or a lifetime of misery at the very least.

Let us help you with our employee drug and alcohol awareness training.It's only an hour. PowerPoints, DVDs, Video, or Web course options are available. We have great take-away handouts and an educational test that will stick in your employees memories. The content they see and hear will be actionable.

Hundreds of companies have purchased our training, and you will discover like them that employees make personal changes that benefit all when they get training and become educated about substance abuse.

Brochure here
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Preview here.

Thanks. Phone me to learn more.



Daniel A. Feerst, MSW, LISW-CP
Publisher -- 1-800-626-4327