poledriver
Bluelighter
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Australian companies sending senior executives to high end rehabilitation facilities
AUSTRALIAN companies are paying up to $40,000 a week to send senior executives with drug problems to high end rehab facilities.
New figures show Australians who use illegal drugs take almost 4 million extra sick days each year, costing the economy a whopping $1.05 billion.
Companies are now trying to front-foot the illicit drug epidemic, with human resources managers increasingly approaching high-end rehab facilities to seek out treatment for their troubled employees.
A News Corp Australia investigation has discovered HR managers are sending valued employees to treatment centres, including The Sanctuary in Byron Bay and Retreat South in Victoria.
In some cases companies are even paying the bill for their top executives to be rehabilitated, with treatment programs across various facilities understood to cost anywhere between $15,000 and $40,000 a week.
Elizabeth Williams, the clinical director of The Sanctuary, confirmed the luxury northern NSW treatment centre — believed to have helped a number of international celebrities — is now getting client referrals from company HR departments.
She said investment banking, advertising, mining and the law were all industries in which this was occurring.
“The jobs involve extreme stress, high pressure, poor work life balance and a distance to self and family,” she said.
Ms Williams said the jobs often also include an assumption that executives are always up for entertaining and recruiting clients after work, which can leave people strung out and exhausted.
She said companies become concerned when their valued executives are no longer able to function, or bring in the revenue they used to.
But while a company might seek out help for an employee, The Sanctuary in Byron Bay will only take a patient if they are committed to their own rehabilitation.
“We won’t take them unless the person wants to do it, it doesn’t matter what the HR person says,” she said.
Victorian facility Retreat South also runs rehab programs for high performing senior executives dealing with stress and addictive behaviours.
Clinical director Ruth Magnusson said it was not unusual for the Human Resources divisions of big companies to make queries about potential clients.
“The modern executive lifestyle, unless someone is of an extremely firm philosophical bent, is actually really contraindicated, we are not designed to live and work that hard,” she said.
“They are all have been remarkably high functioning people with fantastic skill sets, but the demands of the modern workforce, particularly at the senior level where you do not stop working day or night, it that just makes no sense and of course the system breaks down.”
New research published in the Australian and New Zealand Journal of Public Health shows users of illicit drugs, including cocaine, cannabis and ice take 3.9 million more days off work each year than non drug users.
The scourge of illegal drugs is estimated to cost the Australian economy about $1 billion in absenteeism alone.
Australia’s silent drug epidemic
The research, by Ann Roche, Ken Pidd and Victoria Kostadinov, found that even infrequent drug users have high rates of absenteeism and it recommended workplaces implement strategies to promote healthy behaviours, including drug treatment.
“It is recommended that organisations develop and implement a formal Alcohol and Other Drug policy, provide education and training regarding AOD use, and provide access to counselling and treatment,” the paper said.
The Australian Drug Foundation also encourages all companies to have their own drug and alcohol policy and make their expectations clear to employees.
Executive sent to high end rehabilitation treatment centres can access treatments including massage therapy, acupuncture, cooking classes, yoga, pilates, meditation.
Cont -
http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/ne...tion-facilities/story-fntzoymh-1227572611690?
AUSTRALIAN companies are paying up to $40,000 a week to send senior executives with drug problems to high end rehab facilities.
New figures show Australians who use illegal drugs take almost 4 million extra sick days each year, costing the economy a whopping $1.05 billion.
Companies are now trying to front-foot the illicit drug epidemic, with human resources managers increasingly approaching high-end rehab facilities to seek out treatment for their troubled employees.
A News Corp Australia investigation has discovered HR managers are sending valued employees to treatment centres, including The Sanctuary in Byron Bay and Retreat South in Victoria.
In some cases companies are even paying the bill for their top executives to be rehabilitated, with treatment programs across various facilities understood to cost anywhere between $15,000 and $40,000 a week.
Elizabeth Williams, the clinical director of The Sanctuary, confirmed the luxury northern NSW treatment centre — believed to have helped a number of international celebrities — is now getting client referrals from company HR departments.
She said investment banking, advertising, mining and the law were all industries in which this was occurring.
“The jobs involve extreme stress, high pressure, poor work life balance and a distance to self and family,” she said.
Ms Williams said the jobs often also include an assumption that executives are always up for entertaining and recruiting clients after work, which can leave people strung out and exhausted.
She said companies become concerned when their valued executives are no longer able to function, or bring in the revenue they used to.
But while a company might seek out help for an employee, The Sanctuary in Byron Bay will only take a patient if they are committed to their own rehabilitation.
“We won’t take them unless the person wants to do it, it doesn’t matter what the HR person says,” she said.
Victorian facility Retreat South also runs rehab programs for high performing senior executives dealing with stress and addictive behaviours.
Clinical director Ruth Magnusson said it was not unusual for the Human Resources divisions of big companies to make queries about potential clients.
“The modern executive lifestyle, unless someone is of an extremely firm philosophical bent, is actually really contraindicated, we are not designed to live and work that hard,” she said.
“They are all have been remarkably high functioning people with fantastic skill sets, but the demands of the modern workforce, particularly at the senior level where you do not stop working day or night, it that just makes no sense and of course the system breaks down.”
New research published in the Australian and New Zealand Journal of Public Health shows users of illicit drugs, including cocaine, cannabis and ice take 3.9 million more days off work each year than non drug users.
The scourge of illegal drugs is estimated to cost the Australian economy about $1 billion in absenteeism alone.
Australia’s silent drug epidemic
The research, by Ann Roche, Ken Pidd and Victoria Kostadinov, found that even infrequent drug users have high rates of absenteeism and it recommended workplaces implement strategies to promote healthy behaviours, including drug treatment.
“It is recommended that organisations develop and implement a formal Alcohol and Other Drug policy, provide education and training regarding AOD use, and provide access to counselling and treatment,” the paper said.
The Australian Drug Foundation also encourages all companies to have their own drug and alcohol policy and make their expectations clear to employees.
Executive sent to high end rehabilitation treatment centres can access treatments including massage therapy, acupuncture, cooking classes, yoga, pilates, meditation.
Cont -
http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/ne...tion-facilities/story-fntzoymh-1227572611690?
