General Education and Training

Worksafe SA regularly conducts Drug and Alcohol Awareness Seminars. The program objectives are:

• be able to recognise the potential impact of drug & alcohol misuse on work safety
• understand a summary of the effects of drugs & alcohol on human performance & behaviour
• be aware of the need for a fair, controlled system of drug & alcohol testing
• be aware of the benefits of such a testing system to both the individual and the company/organisation
• understand the methods of conducting the drug & alcohol testing
  •understand the company’s/organisation’s policy & procedures on drug& alcohol testing
• this program is not an anti-drinking, anti-drugs program. It is designed to eliminate risks to health and safety due to irresponsible use of drugs & alcohol before or during work time

Ongoing Education

Ongoing education can be provided to new employees who would participate in the same Drug and Alcohol Awareness Seminar completed by all employees upon implementation or the program.

One on one talks can be conducted with employees breaching the policy as part of a return to work procedure. The talks are currently being successfully completed in Adelaide. The talks are very informal and confidential with the employee in a relaxed atmosphere and discussion in concentrated on specific drinking pattern that led to the breach. This makes the employee aware of why he/she breached the policy and can modify future behavior.

The ‘one on one’ talks will be conducted by the site collector who has experience in conducting the awareness seminars and therefore assists in building relationship with employees and feed back to the responsible manager.

Drug and Alcohol Awareness Seminar is approximately 1.5 to 1.75 hours in length and conducted in an informal, interactive style. Involvement from participants is sought and questions in regard to content and company policy / procedure encouraged.

‘One on one’ talks for policy breaches are varied in time dependent on the individual would normally be about 30 – 45 minutes duration.