Preventing opioid use in construction: Three new projects from CPWR

Silver Spring, MD — In an effort to prevent “opioid-related harms” in the construction industry, CPWR – The Center for Construction Research and Training has completed three new projects.

One, a report titled Peer Advocacy for Construction Workers Struggling with Substance Use Disorder and Mental Health, provides recommendations that stem from interviews with members of the North America’s Building Trades Unions’ opioid task force. Also included: “Key questions to consider when designing a future large-scale effectiveness evaluation of peer advocacy programs.”

CPWR notes that although further research is needed to assess and implement best practices, “employers and government should immediately support policies and programs to minimize the impact of the epidemic on construction workers.”

The result of another project – which involved evaluating an existing two-hour opioid hazard awareness training program via trainee surveys, instructor feedback and input from the task force – is a program that is half as long and better accommodates training schedules.

CPWR’s other project “created a communications framework to reframe stigmatizing narratives into effective messages that promote primary prevention” – namely, preventing injuries that would require an opioid prescription to manage pain.

Details of the projects were published online April 7 in New Solutions: A Journal of Environmental and Occupational Health Policy.