Source avec lien : NEW SOLUTIONS: A Journal of Environmental and Occupational Health Policy, (Prépublication), juillet 2021. 10.1177/10482911211031012
Aux États-Unis, les conditions de travail ont été une cause importante de la mortalité par surdose d’opioïdes. Or, la réponse du gouvernement à l’épidémie d’opioïdes n’a pas pris en considération le rôle important des milieux de travail pour faire face à cette crise. Le secteur de la santé doit agir, car il arrive au 4e rang parmi les 6 secteurs comptant le plus de décès de travailleurs par surdose, suivi par le secteur du soutien à la santé au cinquième rang. Cet article fournit des recommandations relatives aux réformes nécessaires pour que le milieu de travail contribue à prévenir les risques associés à l’abus de substances et à soutenir les travailleurs dans le besoin.
Note : une version en accès libre de cet énoncé se trouve sur le site de l’APHA. Opioid overdose mortality, in combination with increased deaths from alcohol and suicide, is having a profound impact on American workplaces, compromising occupational health and safety and increasing workers’ compensation and health insurance costs, absenteeism, and lost productivity. The President’s Council of Economic Advisers estimates that more than 1 million workers are out of the workforce due to the opioid crisis. The impact on workers is equally profound, including job loss, divorce and family disruption, and potentially imprisonment, injury, illness, and death. Pain from occupational injuries and illnesses and stress are important pathways to opioid use disorder. Effective workplace programs that incorporate the public health approach to prevention offer a significant opportunity to prevent and respond to the opioid crisis. To date, the nation’s efforts at combating the crisis have not included the necessary policy reforms to transform the workplace from a pathway to opioid misuse to a pathway to prevention, including education of workers, unions, employers, and health care providers and treatment and recovery of affected workers. Several key policy interventions are recommended to address this disconnect, including prevention of workplace injury, illness, and emotional distress; worker education and training; and replacement of stigmatizing, punitive workplace substance use programs with supportive programs. Increasing access to alternative pain treatment and preventing opioid misuse in workers’ compensation systems are other key policy recommendations.