Unless you’ve had your eyes closed and ear muffs on for the last few years, you know that opioids are a hot topic in the US. There have even been some articles highlighting higher drug use in construction and sounding the alarm on how to potentially fix things.
Many articles are similar in nature and point fingers, assigning near 100% blame and accountability to the individual workers. Addiction is thrown around for anyone using a drug, whereas, dependence or no label might even be more accurate. Dependence and addiction are very similar in terms of their definition but addiction usually leads to more severe issues. Dependence just means that someone needs a substance to avoid withdrawals. Addiction leads to negative mental health impacts and behaviors that can put jobs, relationships and health at risk. Each term is a bit nuanced but not equal. In addition to dependency and addiction, someone may simply be taking medication for a short time to get through an injury. All have similar results where a consumer has drugs in their system but are driven by and lead to much different outcomes.
One common topic that is discussed in articles is that an initial injury is the start of opioid pain usage. Injuries at and away from work can both lead to the need for pain medication. For the right injury, pain medications help people work through them. They can even help with severe injuries but healing will be much more difficult to find because rest and rehabilitation is most likely the best solution. This is where focus should be in our industry. First, construction is rough, tough and dangerous. People will get hurt. Without time to heal, and regular pay during that process, people will often do what they have to do in order to pay the rent and eat.
This is where it can get tricky as industry leaders and human beings. To make a dent in the need craft professionals feel to work through pain, we need to let them get fully treated and recovered. If we don’t help them get healed, how can we expect them to not work through pain through whatever means that they can muster?
The even trickier part is if an injury happens away from work. If they won’t get paid to stay home to heal from an injury, you can bet craft pros will come to work and do their best to get by. The problem is already injured workers are much more likely to be injured again, even if drugs are not involved. If we only want drug free and healthy workers to come to work, we need to set up a system in which craft pros can be honest about all of their health needs.
To an injured worker, drugs may be the only or best option to continue working and paying bills while they try to recover from an injury - drugs might actually be good.
Given the high costs of an on the job accident it starts to make sense to give workers paid time off to heal and recover whether the injury happened at home or at work. If workers are able to feed their families while they heal, they are much more likely to do it and do it right. If someone takes the time to get right, more severe accidents can be avoided and when they return to work, they will be able to work better and more efficiently because they are pain free and not compensating for any physical issues.
As a construction professional that has been on the management side for my whole career, I can’t totally speak for the dilemma craft professionals face when injured, trying to get better and trying to pay bills. Whenever I’ve sprained an ankle on the weekend, I was able to limp through the next week. Nothing I do is under load and I have flexibility to alter my work process so I could do my job as usual. In a more severe instance of changed work abilities, I was hospitalized with an elbow infection for a week a few years back. Once I was release from the hospital I was directed to keep my elbow straight and avoid stress and strain on it. At that point in my career, I was almost a 100% desk jockey so I could still do my work as required. If I had been a craft professional, I would have been looking at three or more weeks without pay. Most craft pros I know would’ve tried to figure out a way to work through it. Changed work processes lead to inefficiency and increase the potential for work quality issues and safety incidents.
As an industry we need to do better. We need to take ownership for all injuries on projects, the health and finances of dedicated craft pros and seek solutions that work for everyone on the project. In depth discussion and consideration should be given to how injured workers can be paid, no matter the injury, while getting healthy.
Articles and Resources
Procore Article - notes workers comp costs but does not discuss loss to individuals experiencing pain and unable to work - https://jobsite.procore.com/opioids-in-construction/
ConstructConnect Article - covers the status quo talking points - https://jobsite.procore.com/opioids-in-construction/
Pain Management Expert Article - covers the basics, as well as, perspectives and treatment that aren't overly common in the echo chamber - https://www.practicalpainmanagement.com/resources/news-and-research/opioids-pain-management-construction-industry
CPWR Resources Website - resources provided by The Center for Construction Research and Testing - https://www.cpwr.com/research/opioid-resources
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