National Recovery Month – Resources to Help Your Employees Anonymously Find Treatment
National Recovery Month – an opportunity to share resources to help employees anonymously find help.
September is National Recovery Month. It is sponsored by SAMHSA (Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Agency) “to increase awareness and understanding of mental and substance use disorders and celebrate the people who recover.”
Celebrating National Recovery Month – Sharing Resources to Help Employees Anonymously Find Treatment for an Alcohol Use Disorder
Employees view information provided by their employer as important for success in the workplace. This psychological predisposition is what helps workplace alcohol and other drug use disorders information, prevention, intervention, and treatment program resources serve as powerful tools to help employees find the help they may need.
For simplicity, I’m going to focus on alcohol use disorders in this post. However, much of what is explained applies to other drug use disorders, aka substance use disorders. The primary difference is the chemical in the alcohol or other drugs – for it is the chemicals that change brain health and functioning when used or consumed in excess.
Raising Awareness About Alcohol Use Disorders as Part of a Workplace’s National Recovery Month Celebration
There are three key reasons people do not seek help with a problematic drinking pattern earlier rather than later. Making employees aware of these reasons and resources can help employees change a problematic drinking pattern, and it can help employees experiencing secondhand drinking to have more productive conversations with a loved one who drinks too much.
Before I continue, know there are many terms used to describe a drinking problem. These include alcohol abuse, binge drinking, alcoholism, and excessive drinking to name a few. Check out this article for a more clear understanding “About the Terms Alcohol Abuse | Alcoholism | Alcohol Use Disorder.”
These three key reasons for why an employee may not seek help with a problematic drinking pattern sooner rather than later are:
Not Knowing What is Considered “Normal” Drinking
The National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA) defines low-risk, aka “normal,” drinking as follows:
- For women: no more than 7 standard drinks in a week, with no more than 3 of those 7 on any day
- For men: no more than 14 standard drinks in a week, with no more than 4 of those 14 on any day.
Each of these is considered one standard drink.
Above is an image from NIAAA’s website, “Rethinking Drinking,” that shows various standard drinks of various alcoholic beverages. In other words, each of these glasses/containers contains the same amount of ethyl alcohol. Ethyl alcohol is the chemical in alcoholic beverages that interrupts the brain’s normal electro-chemical signaling process. It is this process, aka as neural networks, that determines how brain cells (aka neurons) “talk” to one another and to and from other cells throughout the body via the nervous system. It is this talking that controls everything a person thinks, feels, says and does. When a person drinks more than their liver can metabolize (meaning to rid the body/brain of the ethyl alcohol chemicals), the ethyl alcohol chemicals are interrupting the chemical portion of this electro-chemical signaling process. It is that interruption that explains why people slur their words; can’t safely drive a car; say mean hurtful things to those they love the most; and start fights for really dumb reasons. You will also want to know how many standard drinks are in common cocktails and drink containers — click here.
Not Understanding the Difference Between Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism
For this, I suggest my 10 minute video, “Alcoholism is a Disease and It’s Not Alcohol Abuse.”
Something else that can help employees is to know there are anonymous, online assessments they can complete to see where their drinking pattern may fall. Here are two:
- NIAAA’s 2-question screen found at Rethinking Drinking > What’s Your Pattern?
- WHO (World Health Organization)’s 10-question screen found at WHO > AUDIT (Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test). Note: the actual 10-question screen is on page 17 of this PDF. For question 3, in America (because our standard drink measurements are different), men should read it as “5 or more on one occasion” and women should read it as “4 or more on one occasion.”
This is another excellent resource. The National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) – alcohol is considered a drug – Drugs, Brains and Behaviors: the Science of Addiction.
Not Knowing Where to Find Help for an Alcohol Use Disorder
For this I refer you to SAMHSA (the organization sponsoring National Recovery Month). But first, let me share NIDA’s Principles of Effective Treatment. This an important read because there is no one treatment that works for everyone. This document can help your employees evaluate a potential treatment program to see if it will meet their treatment needs.
Once you enter an address, city or zip code in the search bar, this image appears in the upper right corner of a map screen.
Now back to SAMHSA – start at this link, Behavioral Health Treatment Services Locator. When you enter your address, city or zip code in the search box, this image appears in the upper right corner of a map screen. This is where you will start to narrow your search.
Is there a particular state or city or distance you want to stay within? Are you looking for substance abuse or mental health or both types of service and/or any other of the boxes listed there? [Note: SA & MH means you’re looking for co-occurring disorders treatment (co-occurring means to have both a substance abuse and a mental health disorder).When you make your selection of SA or MH or SA & MH, a drop-down menu appears that gives you all sorts of additional options.
And now you have a custom search that can help you find the treatment you need.
Lastly…
Please know that I provide leadership and staff educational programs on all of this. I also work individually with employees and/or their families to further understand the research behind what I have shared above. I can be reached via email at lisaf@breakingthecycles.com.
Note: this post first appeared on SHD Prevention, which I’ve merged with BreakingTheCycles.com. It’s bee revised and updated for National Recovery Month 2019.
Lisa Frederiksen
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