National Safety Council Launches Impairment Recognition and Response Training for Supervisors

ITASCA, Ill., Oct. 14, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- The National Safety Council debuted a new one-hour eLearning course to equip supervisors and safety professionals with the ability to recognize and respond to perceived impairment in the workplace during its 2021 Safety Congress & Expo this week. More than half of employers in a recent NSC survey said impairment is decreasing the safety of their workforce. Impairment from a number of causes can delay thinking and reaction time, increase workplace injuries and errors, lead to higher workers' compensation costs, and increase absenteeism and distraction at work.

"At least 90% of employers are just as concerned about the effects of chronic stress and mental health disorders as they are about fatigue and chemical substances," said Jenny Burke, Senior Director, impairment practice. "We're proud to have developed an all-inclusive training to assist supervisors with the ability to educate and protect their workforce against impairment in a much broader way than ever before."

This one-hour eLearning course, which was tested with real-world supervisors and safety professionals, covers:

• The importance of recognizing and responding to impairment
• Supervisor responsibilities when recognizing impairment
• Common causes of impairment (alcohol, cannabis, fatigue, mental distress and more)
• Common signs and symptoms of impairment
• The NSC original six steps to respond to potential impairment
• Other considerations, including:
• Human Resources involvement
• Prevention
• Laws and regulations

Real-world safety professionals participated in the pilot training to test the course to review the skill building opportunities and user experience. One safety professional was Benjamin Martin, Safety Manager at Emory Healthcare who said, "The training itself is comprehensive, easy to understand and it's easy to implement, as well. The NSC six steps to respond to potential impairment make the process more efficient from beginning to end."

It is highly encouraged for workplaces to have impairment policies in place before prompting supervisors or other staff to take this training. Examples of these policies include reasonable cause/suspicion, drug-free workplace, fatigue risk management and incident reporting, among others.

To register for this training, click here. For more information about how to address impairment in the workplace, visit https://www.nsc.org/impairmenttraining.

About the National Safety Council
The National Safety Council is America's leading nonprofit safety advocate ? and has been for over 100 years. As a mission-based organization, we work to eliminate the leading causes of preventable death and injury, focusing our efforts on the workplace, roadway and impairment. We create a culture of safety to not only keep people safer at work, but also beyond the workplace so they can live their fullest lives.

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SOURCE National Safety Council