Preventing Workplace Substance Abuse: Beyond Drug Testing to Wellness

In Preventing Workplace Substance Abuse, editors Joel B. Bennett and Wayne E. K. Lehman shed light on the limitations of drug testing and demonstrate 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. Why? Testing alone, say the editors, ignores alcohol use and fails to address underlying causes, including contextual workplace factors like stress, stigma, and coworker drinking.

This groundbreaking volume offers a reasoned and well-researched approach that is broader and potentially more effective than coercion in inducing employees to change.

Chapter authors 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 programs, as well as policy-makers and business owners will benefit from the research described and will find options that fit a range of organizational cultures, policy orientations, and employee motivation levels.