How to Manage Opioid Addiction in the Workplace

ACI Founder and CEO, Dr. Ann Clark gets real about addiction in the workplace with management advice on how to respond in this feature published by Quartz at Work.

Every day, an average of 130 people die from opioid overdoses in the US. If we look at the the workplace, it is a microcosm of the broader culture: The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reports that between 2013 and 2016 deaths in the workplace from accidental overdose increased by at least 38% each year, and they continue to rise.

It’s a common enough occurrence that there are now official guidelines for employers and workers on how to use Naloxone, the opioid overdose-reversing drug in cases of emergency. Throughout the course of my decades-long career as a marriage and family therapist, and as a CEO and founder of a specialty benefits company, I have seen firsthand the kinds of performance issues, communication challenges, and struggles that arise from addiction in the workplace.

Some companies, including mine, offer employee assistance programs that provide services and management support for substance abuse and addiction in the workplace. During the course of designing these programs, I’ve seen up close what works—and what doesn’t—to help employees struggling with addiction.

Read the full article here.