Road to Recovery
During National Recovery Month in September, start with these three ways to address substance use in your workplace:
- Provide education on opioids (including painkillers such as Vicodin and Percocet)
- Expand drug panel testing to include the detection of opioids
- Review your benefits package and explain mental health services and substance use treatment programs
Next, explore the “Tools and Templates” section of our website. We’ve stocked this section with a number of free resources intended to help you address substance use and alcohol impairment. No doubt, you have policies in place that prohibit the use of alcohol and drugs at work. But have you considered the implications of substance misuse at home?
Helping employees and their family members live healthier lives is one of the best ways to reduce costs. Off-the-job employer expenses typically arise from substance use disorders, including drunk and drugged driving incidents, whether they involve employees or family members. Absenteeism affects productivity.
We know what’s learned at work often is carried home:
- Driving while intoxicated info card: How much is too much?
- Impaired Drivers are Dangerous Drivers: Print and display this two-page document or use it to lead a safety talk
- Mocktails: You do not have to serve alcohol at company parties or in-home events to have fun; get recipes to make mocktails and share with your group
- BAC test
- Cost of Crashes calculator
- Drug and alcohol policy & compliance notice
- Get Smart about Drugs
- Carteles in Español
- Partner pieces from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, National Safety Council and Texas Department of Transportation
In addition, get the 2021 Recovery Month Toolkit and learn about events scheduled in September all across the country. In these times, safety leaders need to step up, show compassion, be the voice of empathy and create positive change.
Personal and Preventable
We know speed increases force on impact in a crash and therefore increases the severity of injuries. But did you know one in five vehicle crashes occurs in a parking lot or parking garage, where speed often is not a factor? Or that two-thirds of drivers may be pulling into or exiting parking spaces while distracted?
Distraction also is a leading cause of child heatstroke deaths in hot cars. All of these tragedies are preventable. All can impact an employer’s bottom line. Use our Hot Cars Toolkit to educate employees about the consequences of distraction in parking lots. This is a good way to connect with your workers on a personal level, save money and save lives.
Share these items to boost your safety educational efforts:
- Infographic: Awareness is Key. Distraction is Deadly
- Mini-zine: Key facts on parking lot distraction and hot cars are highlighted in this foldable pocket-sized magazine
- Safety Coach Cards: Download 16 new cards that cover the topic of parking lot distraction and hot cars
- Toilet Tabloids: Download and print these two pieces: 1. Drivers + Pedestrians + Parking Lots + Distraction = Deadly, 2. Heads Up Pedestrians
- Traffic Safety Huddle: Use this free resource to lead a safety talk
Be sure to call attention to Child Passenger Safety Week (Sept. 19-25) and National Seat Check Saturday (Sept. 25). Data from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration indicates:
- Two children under 13 were killed and about 375 were injured every day while riding in cars, SUVs, pickups and vans in 2019
There is no way to assign a cost to the human toll of crashes. There are plenty of ways to drive behavior change. Get free child passenger safety materials from NHTSA. Or tap into the National Child Passenger Safety Board’s social media library.
Take your safety program to the next level. Model the best practices of the 2021 Our Driving Concern Texas Employer Traffic Safety award winners. Then, feel free to make some noise!