TALK # 2 WORKPLACE PREVENTION IN COVID 19
The workplace is one of the most neglected settings for prevention programming, especially programming devoted to preventing the use of psychoactive substances such as tobacco, alcohol, marijuana etc.. However, the workplace presents an opportunity to not only reach adults themselves, but also their children and the larger community with prevention messaging and prevention strategies. Many prevention professionals may not be familiar with workplace prevention interventions or services nor with the particular stresses of the workplace that can increase vulnerability for substance use.
Those stresses have increased dramatically in the age of Covid-19. The workplace can be frontline—i.e., facing the pandemic in providing critical services--or teleworking from home with its own set of stressors. Workplace prevention strategies can be applied to address these concerns. At a micro-level, stresses include people working from home, who may be spending longer hours on the job, engaging much more with technology and in many cases, working in environments that are not ideal, due to family responsibilities, including child care, homeschooling their children, and other added obligations. At a macro level, COVID-19 pandemic has affected all industries and increasing job insecurity for workers. All these factors have added stresses and concerns for workers and in particular, workers who are parents.
In this talk, we will be joined by Rebekah Hersch, PhD and Anthony Coetzer-Liversage, PhD candidate, to discuss how COVID-19 has changed the way people work and relate to colleagues and their workplaces and has become a risk factor for engaging in substance use. We will also discuss how now more than ever workplaces need to advocate for and introduce evidence-based workplace prevention interventions and policies that address these added factors and how to overcome the barriers that seem to impede the implementation of workplace interventions.
We are looking forward to discussing prevention opportunities in the workplace and to a lively conversation around this topic. Please come with all your questions and ideas, so that all of us as prevention professionals can maximize our outcomes in this changing landscape.