4 ways to support employees with alcoholism

By Alyssa Place, This is my expertise

Published April 10, 2023 5:30 AM EDT 1 Min Read

When drinking spirals into alcohol addiction, it’s up to everyone to lend a supportive hand and help an individual toward recovery.

With alcohol addiction rates on the rise, the impact on health, mental wellness and the workplace has become hard to ignore. Around 30 million people struggle with alcohol addiction, and it’s estimated that nearly 140,000 people die from alcohol-related causes each year, according to the CDC. Employers have a unique opportunity to combat these statistics and provide support through healthcare benefits, mental health access and through the workplace itself, which can offer a structured environment for employees to heal and eventually thrive.

For Dana Piscapo, a successful director of sales operations at Software Platform Oracle, a dependence on alcohol quickly spiraled out of control during the pandemic. Yet with the support of her employer, along with education from the International Center for Addiction and Recovery Education, Piscapo is working on her own recovery today, and supporting other employees through a mindfulness group she started at Oracle.

“The amount of support I’ve gotten here with Oracle, it just continues to grow,” Piscapo says. “If employers can find a way to open up programs of peer support, to have a safe space for people to go to find resources, or to talk to somebody confidentially, it is a huge step in the right direction.”

Alyssa Place

Editor-in-chief

Alyssa Place is the editor-in-chief of Employee Benefit News and has been with the team since 2019. Her work covers mental health, DEI, women at work, financial wellness, retirement and workplace … Read full bio

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