Nadine Wentzell is a Workplace Drug and Alcohol Consultant with over 30 years’ experience addressing the health and safety risks of substance abuse in the workplace. She is a pharmacist, consultant, educator, facilitator, speaker, and author.
Nadine has worked as a Narcotic Inspector with Health Canada, taught in the Drug Investigative Techniques (DIT) course at the Canadian Police College in Ottawa, has instructed and worked with various regulatory and enforcement bodies, and has conducted investigations at every level across the country. She is a frequent speaker at provincial and national safety conferences, and is integrally involved and has provided Accredited Continuing Education programs to medicine, dentistry, pharmacy and nursing health care practitioners.
Nadine was recently invited to speak as a panelist representing Canada at the US Drug and Alcohol Testing Industry Association annual conference and shared the stage with representatives from Chile, Brazil, Spain, United Kingdom, Australia and New Zealand. She is the Pharmacy Association of Nova Scotia’s spokesperson for all things substance abuse, and is a frequently interviewed guest and contributor to numerous media services.
Nadine has expertise in policy development, supervisor training, employee education, and auditing for compliance and effectiveness. These programs are customized and specific to each client, based on work environments and safety risks. She works with small, medium and large unionized and non-unionized companies across the country and internationally.
Nadine’s focus is on fostering culture change to achieve the ultimate goal of safe workplaces and healthy people. |
All employers want a healthy and safe workplace. Safety at work can be negatively impacted by many factors, not the least of which is substance abuse. While 10% of the population self-identifies as having an active addiction, the reality of use is much higher and presents a real and present concern in the workplace. Drug and alcohol abuse in the workplace leads to injuries, decreased morale and lost time, to name a few. Employers’ costs related to human resources and health and medical benefits increase substantially, and the negative effect on employees impacts productivity and profitability in countless ways.
With the availability of medically authorized cannabis for medical purposes and with legalization of marijuana legislation just around the corner, Human Resource Professionals are being asked to ensure proper policies and programs are in place to address workplace health and safety concerns – for all employees. Senior Leadership as well as employees will be looking to HR to guide them when substance use/abuse issues arise. What we do and how we do it will set precedent and needs to be established using logical processes reflective of best practices.
Learning Objectives
Join us for this workshop as presenter, Nadine Wentzell, prepares us as HR Professionals to address the critical issue of managing substance use and abuse in the workplace. The session will cover the following:
- Recognition and how to address issues
- Workplace Drug and Alcohol Policy & Programs
- Employers rights and responsibilities under that policy
- When medical prescriptions cause safety concerns – What rights does the employer have?
Return to Work Programs
- Processes to follow
- How to re-integrate for success/minimize relapse
Participants will leave this session with strategies to address substance use and abuse in the workplace, templates of example policies, and other resources to help guide HR Professionals through this topic. |
