Page 4 - Delaware Contractors Association - 2023 Construction Excellence Awards

SAVING LIVES IN CONSTRUCTION: HOW DCA AND THE STATE OF DELAWARE ARE FIGHTING OPIOID OVERDOSES
By Tina Irgang Leaderman
When the Delaware Department of Health and Social Services (DHSS) cross-referenced overdose data with occupational data in 2017, it found an extremely troubling trend: close to 30% of those who had died from overdoses worked in the construction industry.
“We needed to figure out what would help people who work in that industry, so we met with the Delaware Contractors Association,” said Anne Carr, Project Manager for Industry Programs at DHSS’ Division of Public Health (DPH). “The DCA was instrumental to developing our response. They would invite their member businesses to come meet with us and discuss what they were seeing.”
One reason why the construction industry is seeing such high rates of overdoses, Carr said, is the nature of the work. “It’s harder on workers’ bodies” than many other occupations, she noted. “They may be injured on the job and then a lot of times, they may try to work through the pain or not take enough time off to let the injury heal.”
To address this problem, DPH launched a Construction Toolkit with resources to help employers become better informed about opioid overuse and how to address the topic with their employees. The toolkit, which is available on the state’s HelpIsHereDE.com website, includes:
• Modules to help guide workplace education sessions about opioids • Important background data on the opioid crisis
• Information about the process for requesting naloxone, the life-
saving medication more commonly known by its brand name Narcan Also available on the HelpIsHereDE.com website are educational
videos about the opioid crisis in construction, links to related resources and many other free materials.
With help from the DCA, DPH has also conducted training on site for construction businesses about recognizing and responding to an overdose. One concern DPH has encountered during those trainings, Carr said, is that companies or employees may be liable if anything goes wrong during the administration of Narcan in the workplace.
“We’ve been educating employers and helping them navigate that,” Carr said. She noted that Delaware’s Good Samaritan laws shield from civil or criminal liability anyone acting in good faith to help someone who has overdosed. “Just think of Narcan as part of your regular first aid kit,” she said.
Since its implementation, the Construction Toolkit has seen some success. “We’ve given out 354 Narcan kits to people working in the construction industry,” said Carr. “Another change I’ve seen is that companies are a little bit more open to learning about Narcan and having it available on the job. There used to be a lot more stigma.”
To acknowledge the DCA’s valuable assistance in launching the Construction Toolkit, the state presented the association with a Certificate of Appreciation for its “tireless commitment to addressing the impact of the opioid epidemic in the construction industry” at the DCA’s annual meeting in October 2022.
“The DCA has been a really valuable partner in this program,” Carr said.
Find the Construction Toolkit on overdose prevention at HelpIsHereDE.com/overdose- prevention/construction-toolkit.
4 | DELAWARE CONTRACTORS ASSOCIATION 2023