DRINK & DRUGS NEWS :: Q&A

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Question:

A drug and alcohol worker in my team has come to me wanting support because she has just relapsed after several years. She is a valued member of staff and we want to help her over this episode and keep her in her post. Can anyone suggest practical support we can give her? [Lizzie, by email]

Your replies...

Dear Lizzie

Might I suggest a few things. You have already started the process of keeping a valuable member of your staff who I am sure has contributed to alleviating suffering for addicts in her care.

I am sure you have made her aware of this - it sounds like a case of burnout to me. I am sure you have done a thorough exploration to cater for your worker's needs.

I would suggest that you need to be aware of the need for all employees to have regular supervision sessions, especially when the workload is getting people down and there is a noticeable change in the working climate.

Those of us who have had a negative experience of addiction and turned it around to help others are invaluable to the workplace, as we have such an in-depth understanding of our clients. Unfortunately, maintenance of our successful recovery to keep us working on par loses its priority.

You and your team have a very realistic insight. I wish you all well.

Chris Donnelly, Newcastle

Dear Lizzie

I can only speak from my own personal experience and the experiences of some of my friends and colleagues within the field. I had been four years clean and was working for a private treatment provider when I relapsed (through personal reasons, not work related issues) and as I now know, was very, very lucky. My employer treated me with the same care and respect with which they treat all their clients. They accepted my condition as an illness as they would with a client who came to them with similar problems, and arranged residential treatment away from my home and workplace.

Through links they had with a different provider, they were able to arrange immediate treatment for me that would have been way beyond my means and meant I avoided the (at the time) long waiting list for statutory referral. I returned to work two months later and have been (I believe) a valued employee for the last three years, repaying the faith of my employer. Friends and colleagues that I know have not been so lucky.

Their employers have either not been so sympathetic or simply have not been as well connected as mine and as able to arrange treatment so easily. Often these people have ended up resigning from their jobs and disappearing from the system with the result that they have not received proper treatment till a lot later than they should have - and in one case too late. The only practical advice I can offer from my experience is to try everything you can, get in touch with all your contacts and try and arrange confidential treatment for your colleague as soon as possible. You owe it to her as an employee and more importantly, as a human being.

Ali, by email

Dear Lizzie

Ok, good points first. Your colleague has come to you for help rather than trying to hide things and the fact that she got clean to begin with suggests that there is hope she might be able to do it again.

However, I don't see how she can do her job effectively whilst she is using. She needs time off and some sort of plan in place to get her clean. In your line of work, you should have some good clinical contacts and might be able to find a suitable place for her to go on some sort of detox programme.

Try also to identify what has made her relapse - has she started seeing old friends who are known users? She needs to rethink her life so that she doesn't relapse again after she hopefully gets clean.

Ian, Harrogate

Dear Lizzie

Although I'm unable to provide suggestions for individual support, your question raises the wider issue of alcohol and drug misuse in the workplace and how organisations are equipped to deal with this.

I believe the following process, within an effective HR policy and procedure framework, shows how organisations can address employee drug and alcohol misuse supportively, fairly and minimise the impact on service delivery:

• Wherever possible an employee's drug and alcohol misuse should be treated as a health problem.
• A drugs and alcohol in the workplace policy and procedure can provide a framework for the employer and employee to identify the most appropriate areas for support.
• Such a policy and procedure can provide an outline of the level and type of support an organisation is able to offer its employees, eg referral to another agency, counselling, GP.
• Time off while rehabilitating and the individual's return to work can be covered by an organisation's sickness absence procedure.
• A drugs and alcohol in the workplace policy and procedure can assure the employee that related information will remain confidential and only shared within the organisation on a need-to-know basis.
• In instances of relapse during treatment each case can be considered on its merits to determine whether a further opportunity should be offered and whether performance management/disciplinary procedures should be invoked.

While the above is based on good practice guidelines, for a variety of reasons, some organisations may agree that an employee's drug and alcohol misuse is a matter for dismissal. Consequently, organisational requirements should be clearly stated within the rules of the organisation and disciplinary/performance management procedures followed when necessary. The issue of drug and alcohol workers relapsing can be complex and sensitive; the above is a way to ensure employers treat employees fairly and supportively while meeting the needs of their organisation.

Coreen Nugent, Organisations Policies Training (OPT)
Coreen.Nugent@optforlearning.co.uk

Dear Lizzie

It is stating the obvious that solid recovery is based on honesty, but like pregnancy it does not come in half measures. How disappointing it is to have a management system, which in spite of its fine words in terms of supporting staff, rarely delivers.

I have experience of a service where a senior manager was allowed to go without sanction when s/he was convicted of drink driving, yet a more junior staff member was dismissed for a conviction for cannabis possession. Worse still, service users are aware of this and that most hard earned commodity, credibility, has been lost.

To the question in hand I suggest she is economical with the facts - every other so and so is - and play the stress card while she sorts herself out.

Best of luck,

Joe, by email

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