Recapping 2020: Check out EBN’s top 20 stories from this year

It is estimated that 21 million people suffer from substance abuse disorders. The cost to the workplace is staggering: Drug abuse and addiction cost $740 billion annually, due to lost productivity and healthcare costs to the employer, according to American Addiction Centers. Even before COVID-19, the opioid crisis had reached epidemic levels, with more than 130 opioid-related deaths occurring every day in 2019. Opioids alone cost employers $78.5 billion per year in productivity, absenteeism, healthcare and crime-related costs, the CDC found. The impact on the workplace is only expected to grow because of the isolation, mental health strain and stress caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

“It’s the nature of the work itself that leads to these outcomes,” says Dr. L. Casey Chosewood, director of the Office of Total Worker Health with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. “Employers can intervene to help worried workers. They can communicate more frequently. They can show more flexibility day in and day out as far as schedules and the demands of the job. Supervisory and organizational support are two of the most powerful interventions.”