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This week’s Throwback Thursday comes from June 1989 and looks at the problems of using psychoactive drugs at work. John Ballard interviews the deputy director of the Standing Conference on Drug Abuse.
The interview takes into account long term health risks, why drugs are problematic and looks at where employers can get advice.
Throwback Thursday – psychoactive drugs in the workplace This week’s Throwback Thursday comes from June 1989 and looks at the problems of using psychoactive drugs at work.
Roz Sanderson
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All very well focusing on recreational drugs and alcohol in increasingly use, by too many, to decompress from today’s perceived work/life stress, pressure and demands that human resources are attempting to accommodate through through inappropriate ineffective strategies.
However, in the chain of causation leading the work/life fatigue related and well meaning accommodations, self-medicated has become the norm in order to deal with the symptoms of stress manifesting, over time, in “adaptation exhaustion” presenting in behaviours tantamount to self-harm exacerbating the potential risk of developing some debilitating illness and/or worse one of many non-communicable diseases.
Over-exposure to a stressor, be that physical and/or mental, will most likely and symptomatically be preceded by an increasing dependence on the range of common performance enhancing drugs whether to sustain alertness and ward off the effects of fatigue by use of stimulants or suppressing physiological discomfort and pain to get through the day.
Commercial drivers and DSE user operators are a simple example as, it has been noted that lorry drivers who use coffee or, energy drinks containing high doses of caffeine to reduce tiredness, make fewer errors, have less mishaps and accidents than those that do not.
Therefore, if, we are to start health screening employees in an attempt to prevent self-harming to themselves and reduce potential work related Health & Safety critical errors then, any intervention must surely be pre-emptive rather than solely reactive as by the time they are arriving at work and failing an alcohol or drug test this is after the fact ?
So, if health is to receive the same priority as safety in terms of being effective then, self-medication of high doses of caffeine, constant use of ant-acids and analgesics, failure to adhere to rest times from breaks to sufficient sleep let alone changes to diet and/or mood indicative of sub-optimal emotional or expected behavioural norms would provide a reasonable check-list for screening “warning signs” supporting routine and planned maintenance of human resources in addition to other business machines and equipment………
All very well focusing on recreational drugs and alcohol in increasingly use, by too many, to decompress from today’s perceived work/life stress, pressure and demands that human resources are attempting to accommodate through through inappropriate ineffective strategies.
However, in the chain of causation leading the work/life fatigue related and well meaning accommodations, self-medicated has become the norm in order to deal with the symptoms of stress manifesting, over time, in “adaptation exhaustion” presenting in behaviours tantamount to self-harm exacerbating the potential risk of developing some debilitating illness and/or worse one of many non-communicable diseases.
Over-exposure to a stressor, be that physical and/or mental, will most likely and symptomatically be preceded by an increasing dependence on the range of common performance enhancing drugs whether to sustain alertness and ward off the effects of fatigue by use of stimulants or suppressing physiological discomfort and pain to get through the day.
Commercial drivers and DSE user operators are a simple example as, it has been noted that lorry drivers who use coffee or, energy drinks containing high doses of caffeine to reduce tiredness, make fewer errors, have less mishaps and accidents than those that do not.
Therefore, if, we are to start health screening employees in an attempt to prevent self-harming to themselves and reduce potential work related Health & Safety critical errors then, any intervention must surely be pre-emptive rather than solely reactive as by the time they are arriving at work and failing an alcohol or drug test this is after the fact ?
So, if health is to receive the same priority as safety in terms of being effective then, self-medication of high doses of caffeine, constant use of ant-acids and analgesics, failure to adhere to rest times from breaks to sufficient sleep let alone changes to diet and/or mood indicative of sub-optimal emotional or expected behavioural norms would provide a reasonable check-list for screening “warning signs” supporting routine and planned maintenance of human resources in addition to other business machines and equipment………