Alcohol and Work

Addressing problems associated with alcohol use is the focus of three current Foundation-funded national programs:

• A Matter of Degree, which supports efforts on college communities and surrounding communities to reduce binge drinking
• Reducing Underage Drinking Through Coalitions, which supports state-based citizens' coalitions to develop strategies to address underage drinking
• Screening and Brief Interventions for Alcohol Abuse in Managed Care, which supports new approaches during medical office visits to address alcohol abuse problems.

Inappropriate alcohol use is also the focus of a range of other Foundation-funded national initiatives that address problems associated with alcohol, illegal drugs and tobacco. In addition, the Foundation is currently funding 103 single-site programs that are addressing alcohol abuse.

Despite this substantial Foundation investment, only a handful of efforts have focused on the workplace as a setting to address the problems of alcohol. This chapter of the Anthology presents the findings from a Foundation-funded survey to explore alcohol use and performance problems in the workplace. The authors were part of a team that conducted research for the Worksite Prevention of Alcohol Problems study at the Harvard and Boston University Schools of Public Health, and at the John Snow Inc., or JSI, in Boston, Mass.