Recovery Friendly Workplaces learn to help themselves by helping employees

MARINETTE – Many employers are reluctant to take a chance on hiring recovering opioid addicts or alcoholics, yet employment can help to keep former drug users on the straight and narrow.

Employers who understand the signs of substance abuse and know how to approach employees and offer them support are more likely to retain employees over the long run, said Jacqueline Boudreau, executive director and chief executive officer at the Marinette Menominee Chamber of Commerce. She recently completed a Recovery Friendly Workplace training program Biehl Bridges to Recovery offers to employers for free.

“I think there’s a substance-abuse issue in the United States,” Boudreau said. “Rural communities probably have [fewer] places to turn to. We’re lucky we have a resource like Biehl Bridges to Recovery. A lot of places don’t have that.”

Opioids might be most deadly, but when alcoholism and other forms of drug addiction are factored in, substance abuse in Wisconsin is a larger problem. “I don’t think anyone can say they don’t know someone who has struggled with this,” Boudreau said. “Alcohol is a big offender in our area; it’s so accepted.”

Wisconsin ranks third in the nation among alcohol consumption, according to research cited by UW-Oshkosh Developmental Psychologist Amy Knepple Carney.

To reduce the stigma associated with substance abuse, Biehl Bridges to Recovery in Marinette launched the free Recovery Friendly Workplace program to employers two and half years ago with grant funds, said Beka Bussineau, a Wisconsin certified peer support specialist.

“We guide businesses through a process of signing a declaration to become more recovery friendly,” said Bussineau, who helps facilitate training on substance abuse at employers and works with individuals as part of the employer program.

She helps employers understand the long-term cost savings involved with retaining workers with substance-abuse backgrounds. It costs about $8,000 to recruit and train an employee, she said.

Encouraging companies to give people with a history of drug addiction a fresh start involves quashing stigmas.

Many people face challenges for periods of time. “Some are short-term issues and some are long-term issues,” Boudreau said. “Maybe it’s a period you’re going through in your life, and you just need some help.”

Employers who understand the signs of substance abuse and know how to approach employees to offer them support are more likely to retain the employee over the long run, she said.

“Everyone’s journey into recovery isn’t going to be the same or look the same,” Boudreau said. “There’s no cookie cutter approach.”

Besides Biehl Bridges to Recovery, the Marinette County Health Department and Delta-Menominee County Health Departments provide support or direct people to other resources, such as Alcoholics Anonymous groups, or a nonprofit providing support. The 211 service provides a help line to direct callers to a provider, Boudreau said.

Bussineau said what kept her from relapsing was Delta County Drug Court and steady employment. But a history of illegal drug use and being in trouble with the law can be an obstacle to gaining a job.
A sizable increase in opioid addictions that peaked in 2010 contributed to massive lawsuits against the drug companies that manufactured and marketed opioids and doctors who overprescribed them, health researchers said in an article on “Opioid Use Disorder” published by StatPearls Publishing.

Whopping financial settlements from these lawsuits are being distributed to state and local governments. Wisconsin is expected to receive about $780 million by 2038 in settlements from distributors Cardinal, McKesson and AmerisourceBergen and from Johnson & Johnson, with payments scheduled to continue for as many as 14 years. This year, the state began receiving money from settlements with pharmacies and drug makers, including Walmart, Walgreens, CVS, Teva and Allergan, Wisconsin Policy Forum said.

The Wisconsin Department of Health Services has received $75 million so far and is in line to receive about $153 million through 2038 for opioid abatement. At the end of 2024, the state had received $75.3 million and local governments received $123 million in settlement funds, according to the Wisconsin Policy Forum and the Wisconsin Department of Health Services.

Still, getting funds to local programs isn’t automatic. Bridges to Recovery hasn’t received any of the opioid settlement funds yet, said Meghan Rutherford, a clinical social worker and project director at Bridges to Recovery.

The Recovery Friendly Workplace program is within the Bridges to Recovery program, under the umbrella organization of the Marinette County Group Home Association. Bridges to Recovery serves about 200 people annually, providing treatment programs and educational programs for families and community members, Rutherford said.

The organization received a three-year grant for the Recovery Friendly Workplace program by partnering with the University of Wisconsin Extension and the Wisconsin Partnership Program at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. About six months of funding from the grants remains, she said.

Bussineau would like to see Recovery Friendly Workplaces expand to more employers. The program offers employers a dedicated peer recovery coach.

When the program first started, it gathered information from focus groups, employers, people in treatment and law enforcement, Bussineau explained. Often, people in treatment expect to be treated badly by employers, so they’re reluctant to apply for jobs. “They expect to get shot down or expect they’re going to have a huge problem when their background checks come around,” she said.

The program “goes a long way to end some of the stigma,” she said. “Employers are coming out publicly to say [they] support people in recovery so that a person with a past may be less hesitant to apply for jobs.”

Retaining a quality employee is a good reason to go through the Recovery Friendly Workplace training program, Boudreau said.

Each person with a substance-abuse problem has to come to terms with it. But employers can encourage them to seek help.

“It’s a line anyone can cross, and everyone’s line isn’t the same,” she said.