It's prom and graduation season; are your employees worrying about teenagers and drugs?

There are all kinds of family problems that affect an employee’s ability to do their work.  Parent issues with teen drug use result in time off from work, lots of phone calls and just plain anxiety that creates a significant distraction. 

Research has shown that teenagers who get information about the dangers of drug use from their parents are less likely to abuse drugs than other teens. Employers can help parents by giving them tools and resources to facilitate these important conversations.

The Parents@Work program is an employer resource of free drug prevention information put together by the National Youth Anti-Drug Media Campaign.  The high quality, well designed materials are updated regularly.  Employers can access articles for employee newsletters, link to www.TheAntiDrug.com on a company intranet and download banners and plenty of additional information. Parents@Work will also link employers to local speakers who can visit your workplace for meetings or lunch and learn sessions.

Brochures and posters can be ordered on line for distribution and are available in Spanish and several other languages.  Or pick up the phone and request materials by calling 1-800-788-2800.  There are eye catching posters to be customized with your company name.  With prom season and graduations getting into full swing it’s the perfect time to give parents these tools. 

The prom poster with the caption “Is it really fun if you don’t remember?” is a terrific example of the material that sends a powerful message.  Spreading these around doesn’t take a lot of effort and will make a difference if even one teen gets the point.  Wouldn’t it be great if all the stories and photos shared at work were full of faces of smiling happy kids and not headlines describing local tragedies caused when teens mix drugs and partying?