One Way Employers can Provide Support to Employees Struggling with Drug Addiction
We are currently in the midst of the most troubling public health crisis in modern history. Overdose deaths have tripled in the last 15 years. Drugs, especially heroin are poisoning the youth in our nation. Many of today’s addicts also appear to live normal lives. They hold normal jobs. It is harder nowadays to identify and stereotype drug addicts. Hopefully, SOON, it will become normal and not TABOO to talk about drug addiction which hopefully will help enable people to get the support they need.
There’s always HOPE. H-ang, O-n, P-ain, E-nds. Locally in Indiana, PA, most of the crime in our area can be attributed to drugs. Indiana, PA which is a college town in the past was not a prime market, but that has changed. Drug dealers are now targeting our area as well as the surrounding areas of Westmoreland and Cambria County. So, how did we get here? Is it due to the increased decriminalization of marijuana? Many experts agree that drug abuse typically starts with an opiate prescribed for pain management like Oxycontin, Percocet, or Vicodin.
Until recently, if you wanted to get heroin or almost any of the hard-core drugs, there were a few places you could get it. Heroin dealers are also now functioning with sophisticated business techniques. They are catering to the suburbs and their delivery systems are becoming harder to detect/shut down by law enforcement. Drug dealers also deal through drug addicts. This makes it hard for them to get caught in the act.
“The pharmaceutical industry was egregious in advancing and propelling the access of opioids to a wider population,” said Bertha Madras,” a Harvard Med School professor recently. She further described their practices as “nefarious and subtle.”
How do we help those impacted? Encourage them to seek help. To beat an addiction, you need a healthy alternative, and it seems that faith based alternatives may help. Our brains are wired in a way to crave/want things that are not always the healthiest for our bodies, and heroin appears to be one of the most addictive drugs ever.
If you are an employer, you may want to consider an EAP (Employee Assistance Program) 70% of drug abusers are employed, and they are 2.5 times more likely to be absent. An EAP program gives your employees and their family members another resource to seek help.
If someone you know is struggling with substance abuse, they need help, and as an employer, family member, friend, it’s a tough place to be when you try to give them love, help provide them with resources, and avoid being an enabler.
Anyone that would like more information about setting up an EAP for your company, please feel free to reach out to me at [email protected]
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