When an employee abuses drugs or alcohol, it can be extremely detrimental to your workplace. From decreased production to increased absences, accidents and medical costs, the effects of addiction in the workplace can be far-reaching. Unfortunately, drug and alcohol abuse is a problem that reaches into all sections of our society across the country. It is increasingly common for multiple employees within a company to be in an ongoing battle with addiction.
What Can You Do to Reduce the Effects of Addiction in Your Workplace?
Educating your employees on addiction prevention as well as treatment for substance abuse and recovery options is one of the best things you can do. Our drug and alcohol treatment canter offers a Corporate Education Program that can be fully customized to your company’s unique needs and challenges. We will educate your management and employees on how to identify those affected by addiction and substance abuse and how they can appropriately help them. Our program covers the many ways drug and alcohol abuse can affect productivity and lays out the risks that coincide with substance abuse in the workplace.
If your company is one of the many that is now offering an Employee Assistance Program (EAP), the Recovery Keys Corporate Education Program can be a key component in its success. Increasing the health of your individual employees means the increased health of your company as a whole. EAPs are designed to help employees deal with any personal issues that affect their job performance, including substance abuse. They seek to aid in employee wellness by offering education and training, a confidential path to assistance with addiction, substance abuse treatment and counseling, and even assistance with accessing drug treatment services. Our rehabilitation center in Jacksonville, FL can help your company achieve the goals of an EAP.
The Costs of Addiction in the Workplace
Alcohol and drug abuse and addictions cost employers billions of dollars a year. Employer-related costs from the effects of addiction include frequent tardy incidents, missed work days, higher employee turnover, lost business earnings due to reduced work productivity, criminal behaviors in the workplace including stealing supplies or money, and an increased number of medical claim filings and workers’ compensation claim filings.
One of the best ways to avoid these costs is to be proactive. Educating your employees and management on the signs of drug abuse or alcohol abuse and how to reach out for help with addiction can save your company money while also helping your employees.
What is a Corporate Education Program for Drug and Alcohol Abuse?
Our Medical Director, Dr. Jeremy Mirabile, MD, is a medical expert who can lend his perspective and insights into the struggle we face against this increasingly problematic addiction epidemic. In 2009, he became one of the first physicians in the United States to be certified by the American Board of Addiction Medicine (ABAM), then a newly-formed medical specialty board focusing on the treatment of alcohol, drug and prescription pain medication addiction. He is also a Fellow of the American Society of Addiction Medicine (ASAM) and a Fellow of the American Academy of Family Physicians (FAAFP).
One of our experts can speak with your employees on a variety of topics about the current addiction epidemic and its affect on the workplace. Topics include:
- Why are opioids so addictive, and why are we seeing the current epidemic take hold so strongly across our communities? What is outpatient opioid rehab?
- Many people still view addiction as a lifestyle choice and not a chronic brain disease. What exactly is drub abuse and why is it so misunderstood?
- What happens to the brain and its reward system when someone is on drugs or alcohol?
- How do other forms of mental illness and or maladies such as anxiety, depression, PTSD and bipolar disorder mix with addiction to make recovery so challenging and difficult?
- What signs can a coworker or family member look for to determine whether or not a loved one or family member is misusing drugs or alcohol?
- High earning professionals are not immune to the disease. How do the pressures on professionals, particularly doctors, nurses, airline pilots, boat captains and other high stress jobs, affect those with the genetic predisposition to addiction?
- If someone needs help, what should they do? How should they reach out for help and to whom?
- What does recovery look like? What type of things does one go through to recover from drugs and alcohol abuse? What types of skills do successful substance abuse treatment programs teach and train their patients to employ and use every day?
We will customize our presentation around such topics that meet your company’s specific needs. In addition to the valuable information included in Dr. Mirabile’s, or one of our chemical dependency counselors’ presentation, our Corporate Education Program includes:
- Customized length or number of presentations to your management and employees
- Separate programs tailored to management and for other employees
- Warning signs your employees and management should be aware of when it comes to addiction in the workplace
- Advice on what to do if you know a coworker or employee is struggling with drug abuse or alcohol abuse.
