Your AOD Management Program

It is important you are fully briefed on the requirements and necessities involving an Alcohol and Other drugs Program. Over the past twenty years, more and more industries and organisations and businesses are either voluntarily opting for, or abiding by legal requirements, and implementing AOD programs that safeguard them and their employees from potential harms associated with alcohol and other Drug Testing Australia on the work site.

The most effective management approach

When devising your program, it is important you develop the most effective management approach possible when it comes to drugs and alcohol. Businesses and organisations will likely need a very individual approach that reflects their type of organisation, its size and many other characteristics specific to its culture and approach.

For maximum effectiveness, these concerns should be addressed and undertaken:

• Should be developed in consultation with  employees, supervisors Workplace Drug Testing for safety representatives and also union delegates
• It should also provide extremely clear guidelines for frontline employees and also for management, regarding the inappropriate use of drugs and alcohol in the work environment.
• It should always provide suitable and appropriate assistance and support for employees with an alcohol or other drug problem. This includes counselling from specialists or social workers or drug and alcohol counsellors.
• It should offer treatment options or possibilities for those with alcohol and drug issues. For example – access to rehabilitation programs, 12 step programs and other treatment programs
• Be suitable and appropriate for all sectors of the workplace and not just one or a few.
• Must also place confidentiality and privacy at the centre and forefront of its charter. 

Optimisation for your workplace

Because each workplace is different and novel, each will require a slightly different policy suited to its individual needs. There are a number of factors that need to be considered to match your policy with your workplace. These include:

• What is the size of your organization
• What is the gender breakdown of your organization (may affect choice of testing procedures and choice or referral to counsellors etc.)
• Does your organization have any specific workplace stress factors that could contribute to excessive AOD use? (E.g. Shift work, isolation etc.)
• Is your organization predominantly blue collar or white collar or a mix of the two?
• Is there discrimination?
• Are work practices particularly stressful?
• What is management style?

These should be addressed as part of the AOD strategy and plan, and should comprise a component of the total approach.

If you are in need of a suitable AOD program, and are considering Drug screening as part of that delivery, you may benefit from Mediscreen’s specialist approach and understanding of the issue. For further information and help with your AOD management program please call Mediscreen on 1300 797040      

How to deal with risk in your business

You may require Risk Management Planning for your business.  And this involves accurate targeting of the inappropriate AOD (alcohol and other drug) usage of employees and workers.

It is vital you address this as a major risk that has the potential to threaten your workplace wellbeing, safety, moral and fiscal growth. Be aware of the signs and symptoms of drug use I the workplace. Understand its risk and threat to your organization and develop strategies that mitigate the threat. Often, this can be achieved best by employing specialists or outsourcing strategies to independent bodies that fully understand the multiplicity of issues that comprise the AOD in the workplace scenario.

Substance “abuse can have an important impact upon the productivity of the paid workforce in three ways:

• Increased workforce absenteeism resulting from drug-attributable sickness or injury;
• Reducing the size of the available workforce as a result of drug-attributable deaths and illnesses causing premature retirement;
• Reduced on-the-job productivity as a result of drug-attributable morbidity.”

Prudent management of drug & alcohol testing and monitoring products, offsetting and/or addressing these issues and the economic shortfalls that are a consequence are all important factors for you to consider…not as an afterthought, but as a priority.

A case in point is The Mines Safety and Inspections Act 1994. This act stipulates that employers/employees are required to manage substance and alcohol problems as a central component of the risk management approach, taking reasonable and practical steps to control and/or rid these risks wherever possible.

And, according to Risk Management Magazine there is still discordance between risk management approaches and the need for compliance with OHS and safety in organisations. When the two are linked seamless interconnection of all facets of safety and risk reduction becomes a reality. You can benefit by “understanding when risk is really unacceptable to the business” and mitigating it.

Mediscreen offers sound and secure Onsite Drug And Alcohol Screening using a state of the art portal system and individual assistance from a designated coordinator. This structure and approach translates to cost savings, safety and reliability for your business. This is of utmost relevance, given Collins and Lapsley’s estimation that the cost to Australian Industry may be as high as $3.2 billion per year.

For assistance on developing a quality workplace testing solutions that optimise your Risk Management procedures, contact for Workplace Drug Testing Laws at Mediscreen on 1300 797040

Drug alcohol testing? Your choice

All workplaces can benefit from drug and alcohol screening programs.

In many industries overseas and in Australia, drug and alcohol screening is now required or inferred in various legislations. But not all industries and work sectors are required to have a drug and alcohol screening program, and in those areas where it is optional, management may simply view the implementation and maintenance of a screening program as non-essential and too costly. But is this really the case, and perhaps in the long term it is far more sensible to actually implement a cost effective and affordable Onsite Drug And Alcohol Screening program that can help to give some leverage against the possibility of accidents, OHS compromises, litigation and low work morale.

The fact is drugs and alcohol are part of our Australian culture and they are seen as acceptable even in the workplace. Many older generation Australians will remember the “extended liquid lunch” comprising a few beers at the pub before taking off home without returning to the workplace to sign out! While those days may be gone, the cultural acceptability of alcohol and some drugs such as cannabis remains and need addressing. It is a fact that in “2001 alone, almost 6 million (37.7%) of Australians aged 14 and over had used an illicit drug in their lifetime.

According to Drug Arm, the “harmful use of drugs and alcohol in the workplace is a reflection of general community use, adding costs to injuries, absenteeism, lost production, workers compensation and rehabilitation.”  This view is also shared by Work Cover Corporation of South Australia.

The various consequences of alcohol and drug use in the workplace may be summed up as follows:

• Lateness/general absenteeism
• Cost and problem of accidents
• Wasted training (dismissal due to AOD issues)
• Wasted apprenticeship (dismissal due to AOD issues)
• Litigation risk
• Risk of litigation or union action if employment is terminated due to AOD
• Reduced competitiveness and profits
• Reduced work performance
• Reduced workplace morale which erodes profits
• Negative workplace culture and increased conflicts

Many of these problems can be offset, monitored and even completely prevented by the introduction of a workplace drug screening program. Mediscreen offers professional drug and alcohol screening systems for organisations that have been tested in the field and also independently. Mediscreen’s screening programmes focus most particularly on recent use, which means the test device is looking for active components of a drug circulating in your system. This means the window of focus is narrowed and more specific to what an employee has done in the recent past as opposed to possible drug use days or weeks ago.  If you require a quality screening program managed by Mediscreen professionals, please call on 1300 797040.