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Show UNDERSTANDING ALCOHOLISM a health column from the Alcohol, Drug Abuse, and Mental Health Administration U.S. Department of Health Alcoholism-Destructive Alcoholism-Destructive Form of Stress Management Alcoholism costs industry an estimated $40 billion each year, reported Gene Middle-ton Middle-ton at a recent conference on "Stress in the Workplace," sponsored by the National Institute of Mental Health. Middleton, an occupational occupa-tional advisor with the Psychiatric Psy-chiatric Institute of Washington, Wash-ington, DC, said that the high costs of alcoholism, a destructive form of stress management, stem from absenteeism, ab-senteeism, loss of productivity, productiv-ity, and the impact on coworkers of alcoholics. While 70 percent of Americans Amer-icans consume alcohol in one form or another, fewer than 20 percent consume 80 percent of all alcoholic beverages bev-erages sold, r.aid Middleton. Symptoms of alcoholism typically appear 4 years after the individual begins drinking, drink-ing, but do not surface in the workplace for ano7hc"r 7 years. Alcoholics may be causing havoc at home for years before they permit the problems of alcoholism to affect their jobs. "Though it is extremely difficult to help an alcoholic," said Middleton, "supervisors and fellow workers must take that responsibility. Ignoring or covering up for alcoholics is loving them to death." Supervisors must carefully document the alcoholic's alco-holic's behaviors - absenteeism, absentee-ism, drinking on the job, long lunch hours - in order to convince the individual to get help. It usually requires a team approach, involving supervisors, employee assistance assist-ance programs, and community com-munity services, to help the alcoholic, he said. Middleton concluded (hat "It makes dollars and sense-to sense-to rehabilitate the alcoholic." "Various studies," he said, "indicate that for every $1 expended on rehabilitation, there is an H return." |