Yesterday, CBS news reported that Chicago has the worst heroin problem in the U.S.
The report, based on research by Roosevelt University’s Illinois Consortium on Drug Policy, claims that there were 23,000 mentions of heroin in emergency room records in Chicago and its suburbs.
That has a huge impact on employer healthcare costs and productively regardless of whether it’s an employee or one of their dependants that’s the user.
False stereotypes may also be blinding employers from seeing who the real culprits are. Experts state that heroin users are “more white, more female, and much younger than is the common perception.”
The Consortium makes several recommendations regarding government policy and funding, but I’d like to remind businesses that they can do something to protect themselves now: involve your employee assistance program (EAP).
EAP costs pennies-on-the-dollar compared to other benefits, such as healthcare, and acts as a cost prevention tool that protects against escalating healthcare expenditures, lawsuits, absenteeism and lost productivity. And, EAP is usually available to all of an employee’s family members at no additional cost.
“It’s cheaper to buy heroin than… to buy a movie ticket. That’s really frightening,” Kate Mahoney, executive director of PEER Services, told CBS Station WBBM.
At Perspectives Ltd, we do several things to help HR and business leaders proactively prevent, identify and manage substance abuse issues impacting their workforce:
- We provide training to supervisors and managers to help them identify substance abuse by employees
- We consult with HR about how to intervene with an employee when needed
- We promote the EAP within organizations to ensure that it’s highly visible and utilized by employees and their family members when they want to speak with someone confidentially about addiction issues
- We help manage behavioral health cases when chemical dependency treatment is needed
Don’t hesitate to contact me if you’d like some additional insights into how EAP can help protect your organization. The type of EAP you select does matter when it comes to cost prevention and ROI.
Terry Cahill is Vice President of Development and Principal of Perspectives Ltd. He has 30 years experience in the behavioral healthcare market and has been in the employee assistance programs (EAP) and work/life field for more than 20 years.
Tags: Chicago, EAP, Employee Assistance Program, ER visits, healthcare costs, heroin, managed behavioral health, MBH, Perspectives Ltd, Roosevelt University's Illinois Consortium on Drug Policy, Terry Cahill
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