Assessing the Acceptance of the Disease Concept of Alcoholism among Eap Practitioners

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Abstract
In the past 20 years special interest groups have increased efforts to de-stigmatize alcoholism through improving the image of the alcoholic and medicalizing alcoholism. Among specific initiatives is the effort to implement work-based employee assistance programs (EAPs) to identify alcoholic employees through job performance decrements and guide them to appropriate treatment resources. In this analysis, two issues are examined. First, we measure the degree to which the disease model of alcoholism is accepted among those working with alcoholics in job-based programs, those variously charged with administering EAPs. Second, we measure attitudes toward the employment of recovering alcoholics in the EAP field. Results indicate that recovery from alcoholism, the role of “co-alcoholic,” and the occupational setting of the EAP administrator each affect the attitudes regarding the disease concept of alcoholism and the appropriateness of recovering alcoholics working in the EAP field.