How Businesses Are Tackling Addiction’s Mounting Toll on U.S. Workers – By Nicole Goodkind (Fortune) / Dec 11 2019
Business leaders are increasingly facing the toll of substance abuse on their workforce — and need to do more to help both their affected workers and their bottom lines, according to executives at Fortune’s Most Powerful Women Next Gen Summit.
Addiction affects more than 20 million Americans directly. When family members of those impacted by substance abuse are factored in, nearly a third of all Americans are touched in some way by the disease. About 75% of those people are part of the workforce, according to a recent study by the National Safety Council, Shatterproof and NORC at the University of Chicago.
It’s estimated that substance abuse problems cost the American economy about $442 billion dollars each year, and that businesses take the brunt of the hit due to absenteeism, lost productivity and healthcare costs.
It’s time that corporations start treating mental health and substance abuse disorders with the same amount of care they treat physical ailments, if not for empathy’s sake then because of the undeniable economic impact, said a panel of experts at the Summit in Laguna Niguel, Calif., on Wednesday.
“If someone had lung disease or heart disease, we’d be running 5Ks and putting their faces on T-shirts and raising money and posting on Facebook. But if someone has chronic addiction, you don’t want to say why that person is out of the office,” said Laura Hutfless, co-founder of FlyteVu, an entertainment marketing agency. Hutfless’s partner struggled with an opioid addiction that stemmed from trauma he experienced as a survivor of 1999’s Columbine High School shooting. He passed away this year.
Continue to article: https://fortune.com/2019/12/11/how-businesses-are-tackling-addictions-mounting-toll-on-u-s-workers/
