Substance Abuse Fight Goes to Work

By Spare Change SUSAN STIGER Of the Journal

When your dad, maybe your granddad, was a working man, people didn’t talk much about their drinking. Oh, there might have been a reference to somebody who “couldn’t hold his liquor,” but, by and large, work was work and a person’s own time was his own. Privacy was part of stoicism.

So much so that it spawned the phrase “elephant in the living room” to describe a drinking problem everybody saw but didn’t talk about.

But that was at least a couple of decades ago. In 2006, in Bernalillo County, 2,386 people were victims of alcohol-related car crashes. Thirty-eight of them died — on public roads that you pay for and your kids drive on. Alcoholism can still be an elephant in the living room, but often it’s charging around making a lot of noise. And people at work have stopped pretending not to notice.

In fact, using a grant from the city of Albuquerque, the DWI Resource Center is sponsoring a DWI Business Alliance to reduce death and injury from crashes involving drugs and alcohol, with the messages and training coming from the workplace, not just your doctor or your church or the police. Many companies have had zero tolerance for drug and alcohol use on the job, or even off the job for company drivers or machine operators. The alliance wants to go further, put the issue front and center with workplace education, training, resources and clear DWI policies where needed.

“It’s hard to find science-based study on prevention,” said Linda Atkinson, executive director of the DWI Resource Center. “The idea is, let’s take the ‘drug-free’ workplace to the next step, allow businesses to have a voice, a vehicle to reduce DWI death and injury, to reach out to more companies, carry the message forward.”

For some people, a drug-free workplace is one thing; pushing behaviors for private time is over the line. Atkinson said some companies prefer the term “wellness program” over anything referring to drugs and alcohol. Given the defensiveness, denial and resistance to change that come with addiction, employees most in need of the message are likely to be the least receptive to it, she admitted.

“But, we have found, with more and more research, that employees don’t just want a paycheck. They want to be appreciated, recognized,” she said. “In a way, these policies are posed as ‘we care about you.’ If you talk to those who have accessed programs, they’re grateful. They become the best sellers of the policies.”

Some companies opt for education — defensive driving, selecting a designated driver, using a Safe Ride program, understanding drug and alcohol abuse and its effects on a family. Others may opt for random drug testing at work and occasional DWI checks on employees. Atkinson said the DWI Resource Center will help write a company’s drug-free workplace policy according to its preferences and provide help with testing policies.

Say you’re an employee at a company of 500 people. It joins the alliance. You’ll probably see defensive driving posters in the hallways, maybe a written workplace policy on consequences for getting a DWI, inserts in your paycheck reminding you about a free employee assistance program, educational presentations about drugs and alcoholism. Whether it’s you, someone in your family, or a subordinate who has the problem, help would be available.

The alliance recruited its first 30 members by supplying them with a sobering thought: Their businesses were located near the three intersections with the highest incidence of alcoholinvolved crashes. Those are Louisiana and Central, Zuni and Central, and Menaul and Fourth. Happy hour at the nearest bars isn’t happy for everybody.

“The majority are at night,” said Atkinson. “We see them start as early as 6 p.m. until the early morning — 2 to 2:30 a.m. when the bars close. Friday, Saturday and early Sunday. Thursday has become the new Friday.”

Among the early joiners were Labor Concepts, A.J. Tires, Sober New Mexico and TruTouch Technologies. The alliance is open to all businesses, and, for now, at least, it’s free. Whereas, the cost of the 2006 alcohol-involved crashes in Bernalillo County was $269 million, including lost wages, increased taxes, medical expenses, insurance premiums and quality of life needs for victims.

We’re all affected by impaired driving, as passengers, defensive drivers, pedestrians, drinkers, tax payers, employers, employees, Atkinson said. This is the beginning of a new conversation.

For more information, call the DWI Resource Center at 881-1084 or go to www.dwiresourcecenter.org.

(c) 2008 Albuquerque Journal. Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights Reserved.