It is a widely held belief that the people who abuse drugs or are addicted to them are mostly social rejects or criminals. But, recent studies have revealed that more than ninety percentages of people who were charged with substance abuse are employed. It is a sad truth that 73% of all current drug users were employed in 1997 . Most of the victims of substance abuse often attribute their behavior to the stress related to their workplace. Even though the truth behind their claim is still awaiting clarification, it has been confirmed that drugs abuse has affected the performance of many employees in the past and in the present. The period of denial of employee drug abuse by organizations have come to a halt.
Therefore, most of the modern organizations have come up with methods to identify drug abuse patterns in their employees and also have implemented programs to tackle their further development as well. This comes from the light of the fact that employee performance in a particular organization can be severely affected by his/her drugs or substance abuse and also the gravity of their addiction. Fred D. Hafer, chairman and CEO of General Public Utilities Corporation, has stated in 1998 that workers who abuse drugs are known to provide only less than two-thirds of what is considered normal productivity while working in an organization . Also, he used data from The National Institute on Drug Abuse and National Institute on Alcohol Abuse to add that a full ten percent of American work force has a chemical dependency problem.
Hence, it is apparent that drugs abuse or substance abuse in workplace is a serious issue that needs to be taken care of as soon as possible. Even though it is obvious that organizations should administer drug abuse prevention programs to counter their effects on employee performance, it is necessary that we take a closer look into the outcomes that we expect from this program. There are mainly three different approaches to drug or substance abuse prevention. They are 1. Demand Reduction Approach 2. Supply Reduction Approach 3. Health and social consequences mitigation approach . Demand Reduction Approaches are the most prominently used drug abuse prevention tool in most schools and workplaces. They aim to reduce the desire in the workforce to obtain and use illicit drugs during or after working hours.
Supply Reduction Approaches are methods to kill the source of illicit drugs and their easy availability in workplace or schools. This approach is more applicable in school levels as drugs sources there are easier to spot and tackle. The third approach, Consequence Mitigation Approach, is usually used in integration with the other two. This approach is the last step in any drugs abuse prevention program; that is, to reduce the social and health consequences of substance abuse. This is essential to heal the scars left by prolonged periods of drugs abuse in employees. These programs are used to educate the workforce of the negative effects of drugs as well as help them fight their desire to go back into the path of substance abuse.
Methods to identify the current drug use and its problems
There is a strong correlation between employee performance and his/her issues with drugs and substance abuse. Some of the common indicators of drug abuse in employees are 1.Excessive unexcused absenteeism from work 2.Excessive worker’s compensation claims 3.Excessive involvement in workplace accidents 3.Lateness to office 4.Subpar performance, etc. The guide by has expressed that data collected regarding these indicators can be used to understand the basic pattern of substance abuse in employees. Even though these indicators are not an exact reflection of drugs abuse among company workforce (as other external factors can also cause such behavior in employees), such details can greatly help the company identify its current position in relation to drugs and substance abuse. This data cannot be used to identify employees that are possible substance abusers, but rather it can help in developing a practical and efficient drug abuse prevention program.
Another useful tool in this regard is Employee Survey. Most often, just as the management, workers are also worried about drugs abuse in their coworkers or themselves. Employee surveys conducted anonymously can provide a great insight into employee behaviors and possible issues related to drugs. Also, such anonymous surveys can get the employees admit a habit that they have tried to oust but in vain. People who abuse illicit drugs often are victims of addiction. Skillfully administered drug prevention programs and related medication (to help them discard this habit) can often bring them back to normal life. Abuse of prescription drugs are more menacing that abusing illicit drugs . This is because these prescription drugs are rather easier to get than the other. Due to the ease of their availability and also the fact that anyone can get away with prescribed medication, such abuses are only spotted after it is too late. Awareness programs and subsequent anonymous questionnaires can help employees come forth to admit their bad habits related to prescription drugs. An even more effective strategy to understand substance abuse in employees is, mandatory drug testing . But only organizations that have clearly stated drugs or substance abuse policies can administer them. It should also be checked weather this interferes with the regulations laid out by legislators in a particular area.
Often, following a single method to identify the drug habits of employees and possible abuse patterns is rendered fruitless. An effective integration of data collected about performance indicators (such as the one given earlier) with anonymous employee surveys are needed to evaluate a program specific for an organization. This is because company culture has a great influence on employee behavior. If employees are required to work under a lot of pressure, drug abuse can be frequent among them. Another possible reason for excessive drug use in employees is peer pressure. This can be avoided by encouraging a healthy corporate culture. Therefore, it is essential that the company management use such data (drug use pattern) only to help its employees rather than target them in the future.
Goals of Prevention Program
As mentioned at the beginning of the report, drug abuse prevention programs follow three different strategies where each one targets a particular aspect of substance abuse such as reducing drug availability, raising awareness, and mitigating its consequences. Each strategy has an important role to play in drug prevention. Through this program we aim at fostering a drug free environment in our organization. An integration of these three strategies is required realizing the dream of a healthy workplace. By this statement we imply that, through the implementation of this prevention program, we shall be aiming at the reduction of drug availability in our workplace as well as raising awareness among our employees about the ill effects of drugs abuse and their unwanted consequences.
Program Implementation
There are four basic steps in the implementation of drug prevention programs. They are 1.Needs assessment 2.Resource Identification 3.Program designing and 4.Evaluation. Needs assessment has already been discussed in the Assessment Methods section. This is the part where we collect all data related to employee health, performance and also instances of medical claims possibly due to drug related medical conditions. An anonymous employee survey will also be administered in order to encourage employees to come forth with information regarding coworkers or themselves. And using such information, the health care department shall make out a pattern of drugs abuse which may prove crucial in deciding the kind of drug prevention programs that a company needs .
The second part of program implementation is Resource Identification. It is necessary that we identify the resources that the company can utilize for the implementation of this program. In this regard, we should consult with the in-house health care department to assess internal resources and external resources such as 1.Federal, state and Local healthcare department 2.Non-profit organization 3.Community based substance abuse prevention groups 4.Hospitals 5.HMOs and other Health Benefit providers 6.Unions 7.Chambers of commerce 8.Addiction Mutual Help Groups .
The next important part of prevention programs is its designing. Each program should be designed to address a particular issue. This is where the needs assessment becomes important. The recognized pattern behind employee drug use can help healthcare departments to design a prevention program specific for a company. The biggest step in this regard is creating a formal and detailed written policy regarding substance abuse in workplace. The study conducted by has reiterated the need for a legally binding drugs abuse policy in every organization. They have also indicated some of the important components that such a policy should include. They are 1.Policy explanation and justification 2.Clear statement of expected behaviors from employee 3.Clear statement of consequences of violating this policy and 4.Assurance to protect confidentiality .
Before conducting programs for employees of any company, its supervisors need to be trained to handle the requirements of the program. Giving training can help them identify the abuse patterns in employees under them by looking at their various performance or behavioral indicators. This can help supervisors to promptly intervene and help employees recover from addiction. The duties of supervisors in this regard need to be clearly laid down to avoid confusions. It is not expected to be the job of supervisors to advice employees or act as counselors upon detection of employee drug abuse . But early discovery and careful mitigation of workplace drug abuse can be achieved by the participation of Supervisors in this program.
Some of the common drug prevention program practices in workplace involve 1.Information dissemination programs 2.Fear arousal programs 3.Moral appeal programs and 4.Affective education programs . If the analysis of the current drug usage pattern in our workforce returns good results, we could choose passive Information Dissemination Programs. They are aimed at creating awareness among workforce who may not be completely lost into addiction. This program can also be used to inform employees that abuse of prescription drugs are just as dangerous as illicit drugs. As mentioned earlier, it is important to decide which of these programs need to be stressed in our work environment. Depending on the nature of our workforce and its drug abuse pattern, we can choose to give more stress on any of the five aforementioned program practices. In case of large organizations, it is usually advised to have Employee Assistance Programs (EAP) . Employee Assistance Programs provide assistance to employees in relation to matters such as mental health, stress, work and family problems, substance abuse, etc. EAPs also provide counseling in situations where it seems needed or at the demand of employees. Promoting EAPs are crucial to workplaces with a large workforce. It can help employees get over their reluctance to admit their problems in life. This is essential in cases of large organizations where assessing a drug abuse pattern using performance indicators is almost impossible or tedious.
Program Evaluation
This is the last step in the implementation of drug prevention programs. The responsibilities of an organization do not end with merely conducting such programs. It is also essential that an organization evaluate the program to assess its outcomes and also rectify the errors, if any, to perfect them in the future. The first step in evaluation is laying out clear objectives that the program is intended to achieve. There can be long term and short term achievements. Long term achievements include some of the factors that were used to predict drug abuse pattern in a particular workforce. These long term benefits are 1.Increased morale 2.Decreased workplace accidents 3.Increased productivities 4.Decreased cost of insurance, etc . These indicators can be measured in a similar way as that of needs assessment.
But in most cases long term benefits are only measured if the short term results show a positive indication. These short term benefits can be easily measured by employee surveys. Effectiveness of any motivational program can be easily understood by a short survey of its participants. Also, anonymous surveys can help employees open up to say what they actually felt about a particular program. But in all cases, drug awareness programs need to be periodical and adhering to company policies. They need to be constantly evaluated using these long and short term indicators. It is also expected that more employees will admit to their habitual drug use after attending drug awareness classes. This is a good indicator that employees are actually benefiting from these programs.
Conclusion
Instead of administering passive awareness classes, active Employee Assistance Programs need to be promoted by organizations. Also, instead of targeting its drug addictive employees, workplaces need to help them recover from these habits. This can encourage more employees to seek help than hide their vices until their recovery becomes hopeless. Most often, workplace culture, pressures, and working environment play a significant role in driving employees to drug abuse. Any organization that is planning on adopting EAPs should also take these facts into consideration and immediately work to mitigate the internal factors responsible for such behavioral trends in employees. The sustenance of the outcomes of these programs can only be ensured by making sure that the causes that led employees to drugs or substance abuse do not exist in the workplace anymore.
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