Abstract
Background: The disease, addiction to chemical substances or drugs such as alcohol (ethanol, C2H5OH) is still not accepted as a diagnostic nosology by many in Ghana. Many consider addiction as a moral challenge, rather than a medical condition. This perception is propagated even in the Ministry of Health’s Occupational Health and Safety (OHS) policy document which punishes symptoms of substance use disorders. This study seeks to explore the perception and attitude of employers towards employees with alcohol use disorders (AUD) and to ascertain the level at which employee assistance programs (EAPs) are implemented in organizations. Methods: To infer outcomes, the study adopted the qualitative approach. In-depth interviews and observations which describe the perceived attitudes of employers (using HR managers as proxy) towards employees with AUD of some selected hospitals (private and public) in the Greater-Accra Metropolis. The interview was conducted face-to-face using an interview guide, which included open-ended questions. The structure of the guide helped the researchers to observe the participants and the conversations were also audio-taped after seeking the consent of the participants. On average, the interview lasted between 45 and 60 minutes. Results: Findings from the 10 interviews revealed that a number of factors such as biological, environmental, social and psychological accounted for AUD among employees regardless of the nature of their work. Although the HR managers had knowledge on the possible causes of AUD, some of them explained that they could not identify alcohol use in their organisations. The few that admitted to AUD at their workplace reported that alcohol use did not have any effect on their productivity and most of these workers were temporal or causal workers, hence were not perceived as permanent staff. In spite of prevalence of AUD in some hospitals, it was interesting to know that majority of these facilities had no EAPs and the few that had policies on AUD were not implementing them. Conclusions: This paper focused on some aspect of HR managers’ perceived attitude toward an aspect of their employees’ mental wellbeing which is AUD in a work setting. However, there are other pertinent issues that are crucial to employee total wellbeing that can be addressed in future research.
Highlights
The majority of adults are in the workforce and with the increasing workload, employees do not have much choice than to spend a substantial proportion of their time at their place of work [1]
This aspect of the study examines the prevalence of alcohol use disorders (AUD), factors that contribute to AUD at the workplace and employers’ perception of employee assistance program (EAPs)
This research was conducted to provide an insight into the prevalence of alcohol use disorder (AUD) in organisations healthcare institutions in Ghana
Summary
The majority of adults are in the workforce and with the increasing workload, employees do not have much choice than to spend a substantial proportion of their time at their place of work [1]. Alcohol abuse has adverse effect on workplace outcomes resulting in absenteeism, presenteeism, work accidents and injury, turnover intentions, work squabbles, sleeping on the job among other losses [6] These issues have been of great concern to a number of employers facing such challenges in their organisations. Stigmatization, isolation and rejection are some forms of emotional struggle that employees with heavy drinking face at their workplace [9] [10] This means in addition to “fighting” their disease addiction, they fight stigma, isolation and rejection which increase their stress levels and decrease their productivity [1] [11]. The few that admitted to AUD at their workplace reported that al-
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