During the 1930s, company physicians in the United States enlisted the help of employees who were members of Alcoholics Anonymous to help their co-workers into recovery. This practice was the beginning of modern-day employee assistance programs (EAPs). In recent years, however, there has been a decline in the rate of EAP referrals to substance abuse treatment. According to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (2007), EAPs accounted for just 4 percent of such referrals in 2006, down from 10 percent in 1990. Has the rise of "broad brush" EAPs caused this decline? Has the increasing use of external EAP vendors to provide employee assistance services affected the frequency of substance abuse referrals? Have EAPs not done a good job of communicating with employers about the impact of substance abuse on productivity or the effectiveness of substance abuse treatment? Finally, have we overlooked the workplace substance abuse recovering community as an additional resource for assisting employees into substance abuse treatment?
