Preventing Workplace Substance Abuse: Beyond Drug Testing to Wellness

This volume sheds light on the limitations of drug testing and demonstrates how individual and organizational wellness efforts can more effectively reduce employee alcohol and drug abuse. In an era of widespread drug testing, employee substance abuse continues unabated and related safety, productivity and medical costs persist. The editors say this is because testing alone ignores alcohol use and fails to address underlying causes, including contextual workplace factors like stress, stigma and co-worker drinking. Chapters describe science-based interventions linked to other areas of individual or organizational wellness, such as stress management, cardiovascular wellness and team building, which appeal to a wider or more holistic sense of wellness. Those who design, implement or advise on workplace prevention programmes, as well as policy-makers and business owners should benefit from the research described and find options that fit a range of organizational cultures, policy orientations and employee motivation levels.