About
This webinar discusses:
- the systems of surveillance, control, and coercion that many employers force upon workers who use drugs.
- substance use policies and the misconceptions, stereotypes, and discriminatory beliefs they are based on.
- research findings on workplace substance use policies and how they can create harm for people who use drugs and increase their risk of drug toxicity death.
- a grassroots peer support network created to support nurses and the importance of peer support for workers who use drugs.
- recommendations for dismantling and rebuilding workplace substance use policy using a harm reduction lens.
Presenters:
Byron Wood is a worker who uses drugs and a founding member of the Workers for Ethical Substance Use Policy Society (WESUP)
Dr. Charlotte Ross has 42 years of experience in clinical nursing, education and research with a focus on mental health and substance use
Corey Ranger, a Registered Nurse and the president of the Harm Reduction Nurses Association
Katrina Stephenson, a Registered Nurse and the founder and CEO of Nurse 2 Nurse Peer Support
Additional Resources:
Workers for Ethical Substance Use Policy
Harm Reduction Nurses Association
Each and Every. Model Workplace Policy: Substance Use-Related Code of Conduct.
Construction Industry Rehabilitation Plan
Canada. 2024. Mental Health Continuum Model.
Stelnicki, A., et al., 2020. Canadian Federation of Nurses Unions Report: Mental Disorder Symptoms Among Nurses in Canada
Bill 47 Ensuring Safety and Cutting Red Tape Act - 2020
BC looks at Broader Recognition of Workplace Trauma - The Tyee - 2023
Ross, C. A. (2021). Public protection as a ruling concept in the management of nurses’ substance use. In, The Palgrave handbook of institutional ethnography. P. C. Luken & S. Vaughan (Eds.). Palgrave MacMillan.
Ross, C. A., Jakubec, S. L., Berry, N. S. & Smye, V. (2019). The business of managing nurses’ substance use. Nursing Inquiry, 2019; 00:e12324. https://doi.org/10.1111/nin.12324
Ross, C. A., Jakubec, S. L., Berry, N. S. & Smye, V. (2018). “A two glass of wine shift”: Dominant discourses and the social organization of nurses’ substance use. Global Qualitative Nursing Research. https://doi.org/10.1177/2333393618810655
Ross, C., Berry, N., Smye, V. & Goldner, E. (2017). A critical review of knowledge on nurses with problematic substance use: Moving from individual blame to awareness of structural factors. Nursing Inquiry, 2017; e12215. https://doi.org/10.1111/nin.12215
