This year's workplace upheavals have challenged HR and benefits professionals in ways no one could have imagined; and pandemic-related burdens to employers continue to emerge.

Consider:

• Experts have estimated that the COVID-19 crisis will lead more Americans to suffer from mental illness – leading to higher levels of drug and alcohol abuse. In fact, a Well Being Trust report released earlier this year estimated 75,000 Americans could die from drug, alcohol misuse, or suicide as a result of the pandemic.
• The White House drug policy office shows an 11.4 % year-over-year increase in drug overdose fatalities for the first four months of 2020.
• Before the pandemic, absenteeism and presenteeism tied to opioid abuse cost employers $10 billion annually, and companies spent twice as much in healthcare expenses for opioid users, according to the American Society of Addiction Medicine (ASAM).
• In 2020, opioid overdose rates are up compared to the first half of 2019. Overdoses nationally jumped 18% in March compared with last year, 29% in April and 42% in May, according to the Overdose Detection Mapping Application Program. This sharp increase is attributed to feelings of isolation, fear of unemployment and other pandemic-related stressors.

Given the breadth of today's opioid crisis, it's likely that these statistics encompass nearly every employer, its workforce and their dependents; and the responsibility to support their health frequently falls on the employer's shoulders. Unfortunately, many corporate health and wellness programs don't include the support needed to deal with addiction, or the resources and education to prevent addiction from occurring in the first place.