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EAPs unite to combat alcohol problemsWEB EXCLUSIVE
By Kathleen Koster
May 14, 2010
A new initiative, known as the BIG (Brief Intervention Group) Initiative is bringing employee assistance
programs together to intensify the fight against alcohol abuse in the workplace.
Although EAPs have their roots identifying and supporting workers with alcohol problems, it’s estimated
that they currently engage only about one out of every 20 seriously impaired workers.
Alcohol problems that cause lost productivity, absenteeism, excess emergency department and hospital
use by those that are not engaged by EAPs – the other 19 out of 20 workers – add $61 billion to the
nation’s health care bill per year.
While the workplace remains a logical focal point for help, since approximately 77% of
individuals with a substance use disorder are employed, new efforts will be brought to bear to identify
employees in trouble and bring them recovery resources.
The BIG Initiative involves all of the major national EAPs, most of the leading regional EAPs, more than
16 internal EAPs run by Fortune 500 companies, business groups (e.g., the National Business Group on
Health, the Partnership for Workplace Mental Health), EAP professionals associations (EAPA, EASNA,
Center for Clinical Social Work), and leading EAP consultants and researchers.
The work is underwritten by a grant to George Washington University from the National Highway
Traffic Administration and the Center for Substance Abuse Treatment. The Institute for Healthcare
Improvement–style campaign aims to make screening for alcohol problems and brief, immediate
counseling the routine practice of the EAP industry in the U.S. and Canada within one year.
When employees abuse drugs or alcohol they are three and a half times more likely to be involved in a
workplace accident, resulting in increased workers’ compensation and disability claims, cite George
Washington University researchers.
Further, one in five workers report being injured or put in danger on the job because of a colleague’s
drinking, or having to work harder, redo work, or cover for a coworker as a result of a fellow
employee’s drinking.
Adult workers with substance abuse problems also miss more work, an average of 45% more days per
year, than employees without a substance use disorder. They are also more likely to jump from job to
job.
job.
They seek emergency room attention 25% more often than their peers. In addition, they have health care
costs more than twice that of the rest of the population.
The good news is that more employers are implementing EAPs to deal with alcohol related problems
among their employee population. In the past 15 years, the proportion of businesses with EAPs has more
than doubled, from about 33% in 1995 to 75% in 2009, according to Society for Human Resource
Management surveys. Still, these may not be sufficient in dealing with such a pervasive and complex
problem.
“Alcohol and substance-related problems present a clear threat to employers in terms of productivity
loss, safety, employee engagement, use of supervisory time and health care costs,” says John Pompe,
manager of Disability and Behavioral Health Programs, Caterpillar Inc.
“The problem is that most employees with substance abuse problems go unrecognized and even more go
untreated. Most employee assistance programs (EAPs), which employers think are addressing this
problem, do a very poor job of case finding for alcohol and drug problems. In most instances, unless
someone calls the EAP specifically to request alcohol or drug treatment, substance abuse problems will
go unnoticed," he adds.
This is where the leaders of BIG Initiative believe they can help by asking one to three simple questions
when an individual calls into an EAP hotline. “We have found that by simply asking alcohol consumption
questions, we get gains of 500-600% in the rates of people who the EAPs are identifying,” says Eric
Goplerud, Ph.D., Center for Integrated Behavioral Health Policy, Department of Health Policy, George
Washington University Medical Center.
“With those simple questions, EAPs are identifying people that are at a much higher risk of having
health complications or work, family or social complications. EAPs don’t diagnose, they focus on solving
problems," he says.
When employing screening and brief intervention in primary care situations, they found that this
strategy reduces emergency department and hospital visits substantially, it reduces cost by 15% per
month after screening and brief intervention.
In emergency departments it reduces the likelihood of re-entry by 50%. For every nine brief
interventions (which last approximately five to 15 minutes), the program reduced by one the number of
DWI arrests in the year following the brief intervention.
According to Goplerud, research has discovered that alcohol screening and brief intervention is “the 4th
most cost-effective preventive intervention that can be done in primary care, so what we’re doing is
adapting that to EAPs,” he says.
For more information on BIG Initiative visit the following Web sites or contact Tracy McPherson at
([email protected]) or Eric Goplerud at ([email protected]).
Resources:
1. Employee Assistance Programs: Workplace Opportunities for Intervening in Alcohol Problems:
http://www.ensuringsolutions.org/usr_doc/Primer5_EAPs.pdf
2. Brief Intervention: Cost-Effective Help for Problem Drinkers:
http://www.ensuringsolutions.org/resources/resources_show.htm?doc_id=329150
3. Alcohol Screening: A Quick First Step to Reduce Problem Drinking:
http://www.ensuringsolutions.org/resources/resources_show.htm?doc_id=328506
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