Workplace programs to debar and reduce alcohol-related problems among employee have considerable potential.

Workplace programs to debar and reduce alcohol-related problems among employee have considerable potential. For example, because employee expend a lot of time at work, coworkers and supervisors may have the opportunity to notice a developing alcohol puzzle In addition, employers can use their influence to motivate employee to obtain help for an alcohol moot point Many employers offer employee assistance programs (EAPs) as well as educational programs to abridge employees' alcohol problems. However, several risk factors for alcohol enigmas exist in the workplace domain. Further research is exigencyed to develop strategies to cut down these risk factors. KEY WORDS: workplace-based prevention; Employee Assistance Program; intervention referral; relapse prevention; alcohol or other medicine (AOD) education; health promotion; workplace AOD policy; identification and screening for AOD use; occupational stress; stres as an AOD cause (AODC); social detachment

**********

As a domain for alcohol-problem prevention, the workplace keep possession ofs great promise. In the United States and, increasingly, around the world, the majority of adults who are at risk for alcohol point to be solved [i]or[/i] settleds are employed. As described here, employer have several well-defined means at their disposal for intervening with puzzle drinking. Those methods serve not barely the interests of the employer on the other hand also those of the employee and their sustained bys Furthermore, the potential for a preventive impact is worldwide. Western patterns of workplace organization and agency relationships have spread to influence global practices, setting the stage for the diffusion of workplace interventions and for addressing emerging economies increasing alcohol question s (Masi 2000; Roman in press)

Despite these possibilities, the increase of prevention programs in U workplaces has slowed considerably in new years and, in fact, may be in ne of revitalization (Roman and Baker 2001; Roman in press) The decline in work-place attention to alcohol enigmas illustrates the need for creating and maintaining an infrastructure for sustaining alcohol interventions in settings not typically associated with the delivery of health care.

This article will first review the opportunities workplaces provide for preventing alcohol problems--people expend a large amount of time at the workplace and employer may use their leverage to motivate an employee to pursue help for an alcohol enigma The article also will discuss the use of employee assistance programs (EAPs) and complementary programs to make employee alcohol problems and then examine risk factors for alcohol point in disputes that exist in the work environment.

TRACING THE progression in a continuously ascending gradation OF WORKPLACE PROGRAMS

The significant mien of alcohol problems in the workforce was chiefly recently documented in a 1997 national view indicating that about 7.6 percent of fill-time employee are heavy drinkers (i.e., they consum five or more drinks by occasion on 5 or more days in the month prior to being surveyed) (Zhang et al. 1999) According to that contemplation about one-third of the heavy drinkers also used illegal drugs

Workplaces have introduced programs to impede and treat alcohol and other physic (AOD) abuse among employees, especially across the past 25 years. The goal of many of these programs has been "human resource conservation"; that is, the programs strive to make secure that employees maintain their careers and productivity (Roman and Blum 1999) Although the programs vary considerably in their mode of building they may include health promotion, education, and referral to AOD abuse treatment when straited Most of these programs focus upon early identification of a point in dispute or helping those already affected from a problem (i.e., secondary prevention) rather than targeting the general population (i.e., primary prevention). Three separate studies point out to that the majority of American employer propound EAPs, which potentially may provide services to help eliminate drinking in the workplace (Zhang et al. 1999; Hartwell et al. 1996; Blum and Roman 1995) Despite the widespread use of of the like kind programs, however, no data from a representative sample of EAPs are available to support the usefulness of these programs.

OPPORTUNITIES FOR WORKPLACE PREVENTION

The workplace provides several strong opportunities for implementing AOD abuse prevention strategies, including:

* The majority of adults are applyed making the workplace an ideal setting to teach a large population.

* Full-time employee expend a significant proportion of their time at work, increasing the possibility of aspect to preventive messages or programs put forwarded through the workplace. The likelihood that evidence of question at issue drinking will become visible to those who might have a character in intervention also is increased.

* Work plays an important part in most people's lives. Because many adults' parts in the family and community are pendent on maintaining the income, status, and prestige that accompanies office the relationship between the employer and the employee contains a measure of "leverage." The employer has the right to calculate upon an adequate level of work at jobs performance. If alcohol abuse breaches the masterships of the employer-employee agreement or is associated with substandard work at jobs performance, the employer may withdraw pay or privileges associated with the piece of work thus motivating the employee with alcohol moot points to change his or her behavior.