Alberta government offers blueprint to help businesses support workers dealing with addiction

The Alberta government is offering businesses a new guide to help workers dealing with addiction.

“We know that somewhere around 10 per cent of employees, employed in Alberta, have struggled with substance use in the past in problematic ways and are now in recovery,” Dan Williams, Alberta’s minister of mental health and addiction, told a news conference Tuesday.

The province and the provincial Crown corporation Canadian Centre of Recovery Excellence released a document with ideas to help those struggling in the workplace.

It suggests ways to reduce stigma, encourage people to ask for help and foster recovery-focused recruitment and retention practices.

“Wherever someone is suffering from addiction, we want to meet them there and give them an off-ramp out of addiction,” Williams said.

“Addiction leads to only one of two ends … It either ends in recovery and secondly, more tragically, the outcome of death.”

Williams said one in five Albertas have mental health issues. The Crown recovery corporation said employers would save $8,500 annually per employee with recovery-friendly workplace policies.

Ian Robb, former chair of Building Trades of Alberta, recounted the case of a construction worker who was in recovery but found there were more drugs and alcohol on the site than he cared to deal with. He said his fellow employees suggested he “suck it up and get to work,” while his foreman was unable to give him a layoff and there was nobody to replace him.

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He said 51 days later, the young man was found dead of an overdose.

“It’s a stark reminder of the challenges for those with mental illness or addiction and those they face in the workplace and what can happen when supports are not available,” said Kym Kaufmann, head of the Canadian Centre of Recovery Excellence.

“Recovery isn’t just about overcoming addiction. It’s about building a meaningful life.”