Substance Abuse Prevention As Corporate Social Responsibility

Introduction: National and international directives of the past two decades have declared that prevention programs aiming to reduce illicit drug use, excessive alcohol use and the misuse of prescription drugs should be addressed by engaging all strata of society in dialogue and collaboration. However, in both the U.S. and Europe, efforts to engage the business community in these collaborations have been only marginally effective. This collaboration between researchers in the U.S. and Hungary examined the options to strategically involve the business sector in substance abuse prevention through the specific case of workplace prevention within the framework of corporate social responsibility (CSR) and health promotion.

Methods: Focus group discussions; in-depth interviews with company managers, government officials and both Hungarian and international stakeholders; comprehensive literature review and analyses of publicly available documents of Anglo-Saxon and Continental European companies.

Results: Business organizations are often reluctant to engage in substance abuse prevention because of the stigma that is attached to the issue. By rebranding substance abuse as part of a broader health promotion campaign (e.g. within stress management), workplace substance abuse prevention efforts can be made more attractive and effective.

In addition, public sector initiatives often employ a narrow approach and consider business entities merely as employers who provide workplace environments where prevention programs can be conducted. Such an approach makes it difficult to reach strategic involvement of companies. All forms of business organizations should consider the mental and physical wellness of their workforce strategically and implement workplace prevention programs through their CSR activities, which have deep roots in Europe. Moreover, particular industries and organizations can be strategically involved in the prevention of substance abuse, by expanding efforts to those voluntary business initiatives that allocate financial or other forms of support to solve social problems, addressing not only the workforce, but also other stakeholders as the families of the workers, the local community, or other members of society.

Conclusions: The study concludes that CSR offers a framework to achieve strategic business involvement in substance abuse prevention. However a different perception of the role of the business sector and a new set of negotiations among company managers, government officials and other stakeholders are necessary to make the involvement viable.