Small Business 4-hour edition of Team Awareness was developed as part of the Small Business Wellness Initiative (SWBI) project. For more information, visit the SBWI Web site at www.sbwi.org
About this training package
Team Awareness Small Business is a 4-hour team-based training program that integrates team building exercises with peer referral and stress management skills. Understanding the time constraints of small businesses, the training was modified from the original 8-hour SAMHSA model program, Team Awareness: Drugs in the Workplace. It is designed specifically to increase the awareness of behavioral health as a group concern rather than an individual burden.
Team Awareness Small Business is highly interactive and uses group discussion, communication exercises, a board game, role play, and self-assessments. The objectives of this program are to examine and address the role that work group culture and social dynamics play in enabling substance use and how use by any member of the work group can negatively impact every other member. The training addresses five areas of workplace culture associated with substance use and other behavioral health concerns: occupational subcultures, drinking climates, tolerance/enabling, group cohesion, and the social context of policy.
This program has been shown to increase employee help-seeking for and supervisor responsiveness to, troubled workers, enhance the work climate, and reduce problem drinking. These results are achieved by:
- Promoting social health
- Promoting increased communication between workers
- Improving knowledge and attitudes toward alcohol- and drug-related protective factors in the workplace (such as company policy or Employee Assistance Programs)
- Increasing peer referral behaviors