Stealing Medical Supplies

Drug Testing Australia

Any medical professional will tell you that, even in the medical field, there are plenty of untrustworthy people who are looking to make a profit in a back alley transaction. This can include anything from not properly disposing of discarded organs to stealing drugs and selling them on the black market. Whatever the case, it is advisable to always use a licensed physician with a strong reputation for any of your medical needs.

When legal drugs are dealt out and sold outside of appropriate medical consultation and abused, then doctors can have a hard time figuring out how much of a patient’s reaction to the drug is because of their own systemic setup and how much is because of the dosage of the drug or the type of drug.

In many cases, abuse of legal drugs can cause a person more short-term damage than that of illicit drugs. This is because of the problems with identifying what the drug is, what the dosage abused was, and how the patient normally responds to drugs of that nature. Since medical drugs are designed for very specific purposes, their abuse is not so easily dealt with as for standard known illicit drugs.

Employee drug and alcohol testing generally screens for illicit drugs, but if someone has been abusing large amount of legal drugs which have diazepines, opiates, or meth-based ingredients in them, these would still probably show up during drug screening. And if they were abusing these drugs enough to create a high, then the amount of the reactant drug would be high enough in their system to be detectable.

Workplace drug testing laws are in place to help some companies always make drug screening and alcohol testing available to their employees. However, onsite drug & alcohol testing can be available to your company, no matter what your business is, through the services of Mediscreen. We bring drug and alcohol testing right your place of business, screen all of your employees, and store your employee records onsite. That’s efficiency, if we do say so ourselves. Make sure that your workers are not abusing any type of drug, legal or illegal.

This article has been taken from : http://www.mediscreen.net.au/stealing-medical-supplies/

Pets and Addicts

Drug Test Perth

Addicts who are twelve step programs often find that they are counseled to avoid getting into any relationships while they are getting help for their substance abuse. They are told that they should not develop a relationship with someone else until they can first handle the responsibility of their part of that relationship. First, though, they must be able to handle the responsibility of taking care of themselves and having a normal life in that direction, too.

To begin with, the addict is instructed to wait until they feel like they can take on responsibility besides their own care. When they feel like they are ready for the next step, they are counseled that they should get a plant.

If they are able to keep the plant alive for six months, then they can move on to a pet.

If they can properly take care of a pet from six to twelve months, then they are counseled that they can begin to work on their relationships with humans. When they can hold down a friendship, then they can work on starting to date. If, after dating someone who is emotionally healthy for six months, they feel like they can hold down a relationship, then they are told that they can be in a romantic relationship for a year or so before they commit to anything more.

Since addicts are notorious for jumping in and out of relationships and for treating people much like they would treat themselves (which is not healthy or positive in any way), they are continuously counseled to take care of their own ability to cope with life before they bring in outsiders which can be hurt by their addictive and abusive behavior.

Slow and steady wins the race.

Workplace drug testing is also meant to help businesses maintain their employee safety and asset protection through regular employee screening. Mediscreen is one of the businesses in Australia which specializes in onsite drug & alcohol testing, and we are furthermore accredited by NATA for urine testing. So, really, we are the company you want to use. Drug and alcohol testing is important in maintaining a healthy, sustainable business.

This article has been taken from : http://www.mediscreen.net.au/pets-and-addicts/

Meth and House Cleaning

Alcohol Drug Testing

If you have ever met or known a meth head, you might have noticed that they tend to have really clean houses. This is not because they all of a sudden become particularly concerned about how clean everything is, but because hyperactivity is part of the side effects of being high on methamphetamine. Hyperactivity makes the person so active and have such a need to keep moving that they tend to accomplish huge amounts of work in a small amount of time. There is no time to sit and think about what you will do or how it will get done. The brain, for all intents and purposes, is turned off.

Meth heads, like all drug addicts, cause a lot of pain and suffering to those who know them and to loved ones who care about them. While everyone wants to believe the best about humanity, many people just don’t understand how little they can trust an addict once the addict has become fully focused on meeting their addiction need at the cost of everything else. We all have inner boundaries over which we will never cross if it means hurting someone else. But the mind of a drug addict or alcoholic is different. They have a need for the substance they are abusing, and nothing, in their minds, feels as good or as safe or as steady as satisfying that need. Therefore, nothing is as valuable as satisfying that need.

This is not to say that anyone deliberately sets out to become an addict with the intention of hurting others. In many cases, the hurting is still not deliberate even after it is inflicted. It is simply part of how their brains works, and friends and family members must realize this.

Employee drug & alcohol testing helps to prevent this abuse from regularly occurring in the workplace environment. Mediscreen is accredited by NATA for medical testing, which means that our specialty of onsite drug screening is unparalleled. We can bring you the finest workplace drug testing right there onsite, and we are very determined to deliver quality care and professional treatment to your employees.

This article has been taken from : http://www.mediscreen.net.au/meth-and-house-cleaning/

Medical Marijuana

Alcohol Drug Testing

When someone wishes to obtain marijuana illegally and abuse it, they may attempt to go the route of acquiring medical marijuana, which, in some countries is legal if prescribed by a doctor for pain or for other expected but slightly beneficial side effects.

Of course, medical marijuana can come in different forms, some stronger than others, so even if it is prescribed, not everyone will want to go ahead and partake of it. The reasons behind prescribing medical marijuana often have to do with life threatening illnesses and various forms of pain management. If the patient is allergic to some pain medications, then medical marijuana may be prescribed as a possible way to manage their pain. Also, if a patient is particularly resistant too pain medications, then this or some morphine based medication may be suggested to them. However, if the patient is, indeed, resistant to the effects of pain medication, then the possibility of high addiction may need to be considered.

Drug & alcohol testing may help some people to resist the temptation to overdose on their pain meds, but it may also help some people to get through the net while having a legal way to do so: through their doctor’s prescription pad. Fortunately, Mediscreen is a NATA accredited drug and alcohol testing company, and we really know all the ways in which people may attempt to get around a drug testing program.

Leave these people to us.

Mediscreen delivers high quality and accurate results, not to mention the fact that our professionalism is far beyond what many people experience with a drug screening company. We come to your office and we screen your employees, but it is all done right there at your place of business. It’s a great way to get your company policies satisfied while also saving time and money and using a NATA accredited business all at once.

Of course, we believe that you will also be singing our praises once you have experienced our drug screening services. For more information on Mediscreen, our workplace drug testing programs, or what your company policies may need to include regarding employee screening.

This article has been taken from : http://www.mediscreen.net.au/medical-marijuana/

Living Up To Your Goals

Drug Testing Australia

Well, we all have goals. Some of us just want our children to outgrow the yelling and screaming stage. Some of us want to have a nice, solid retirement upon which to live when we are older. Some of us want more privacy and to be able to live our days in peace and quiet with a good book, a faithful spouse (or at least a pet), and plenty of warmth and security. Some of us are really ambitious and want to reach for the stars, outshine everyone else, and live in luxury while always keeping our minds sharp by being the best in our respective fields.

Living up to your goals does not have to be a distant dream. You can come up with a good business based upon solid principles, train your team, and present yourself as a high quality business owner. However, your employees’ dreams are not the same as yours. That much will make itself known to you from a very early time in the employment process. They want different things from you.

How do you get your workers on board with your dream and your future vision?

Well, to begin with, they may never be truly as inspired by your ideas as you are. If they become so, then you have a very loyal, reliable, extremely productive staff member whom you should always keep hired and near you. Their passion for your projects will help feed your own desires, too.

In the meantime, the rest of your employees, which will be most of them, will only be doing their jobs without a great deal of extraneous thought about the goals of the company they work for. Drug and alcohol testing is part of making sure that, whatever their goals are, they do not bring abusive substances into your jobsite. Drug & alcohol testing is instrumental in helping you keep your team in check in that regard while they are helping you to live up to your goals. Onsite drug & alcohol testing, the special drug screening methods which involve coming to your place of business, is provided by Mediscreen in Australia. There may be a few other companies which also provide those services, but you will never notice them.

This article has been taken from : http://www.mediscreen.net.au/living-up-to-your-goals/

In the Age of Destruction

Drug & Alcohol Testing

Being publicly drunk or high on drugs used to be bad. It used to carry a lot more weight than it does today. We have entered the age of destruction, where every human being on the planet is trying to find out how destructive energy works. Whether it is through video games or street fighting, whether it is through ignorance or apathy, the age of destruction is experimented with by just about everyone. We abuse drugs and alcohol, we cut ourselves to feel the endorphin rush and the pain, we have become addicted to exercise for the endorphin high and addicted to fatty foods for the hormone high. We are stubborn, arrogant, happy one day and depressed the next.

There is no stability for the mind of man in the age of destruction.

People who used to think that they were strong and able are not too weak to stand. Drug abuse has wiped out any strength we have to just live a normal, everyday, stress-free life. Alcohol abuse has wiped out any ability that we have to handle even the tiniest of problems and all nerve we have to take passing jokes as anything but deep personal insults.

The age of destruction has wiped us out.

Fortunately, your business does not have to even be remotely touched by all of this!

Through Mediscreen, you can keep track of your employees through regular drug and alcohol testing. We make it easy to have a well run, smoothly operating business which only the finest quality employees within your walls. Now, who wouldn’t want a company with those lovely attributes?

Onsite drug & alcohol testing is brought to you by Mediscreen, and we are NATA accredited for urine testing, too. Our services come to your business place. We screen your wonderful employees, make sure that everyone is behaving themselves, deliver the test results to you so that you can make your business decisions quietly and reasonably in the privacy of your office. Drug screening may have made civilization weak, but your business can be strong in the face of anything. Information is power, and Mediscreen delivers information to you on a regularly scheduled basis.

This article has been taken from : http://www.mediscreen.net.au/in-the-age-of-destruction/

Inherently Stressful Times

Drug Screening

Workplace drug testing is crucial when you are dealing with stress and other factors which seep into every part of life, including work, career goals, family, health, physical stamina, etc. Stress is a dangerous thing to have in your life for long periods of time. In short bursts, it can be dealt with quite effectively. However, alcohol testing is brought to you by Mediscreen, and we know that your workplace environment is fraught with office politics, high tempers, and many other variables which determine how much someone loves or hates their job, and how likely they are to abuse substances while on the jobsite. Drug and alcohol testing is part of your company’s source energy. It is like an X-Ray scan which scans your business for any discrepancies in the amount of substance abuse which may or may not be taking place. It delivers the numbers to you swiftly and accurately. And, furthermore, drug and alcohol testing is part of the protection of your company’s assets.

We all know someone who has either been sued or who has sued someone else. Company lawsuits can affect insurance costs, liability protection, and many other things. If you have any lawsuits whatsoever, you will want a nice, solid paper trail documenting the abuse of alcohol or drugs by any employees who may be engaging in these activities. If you have a lot of lawsuits, then you will want to even more regularly screen your employees, so as to reduce the number of people who are likely to slip through the cracks and cause damage to your worksite or to other people. Drug screening and alcohol testingAlcohol testingare proven ways to make sure that your business is exactly as it is supposed to be. Mediscreen will bring you to the source energy and help you take a drink from it. Drug & alcohol testing is one of the simplest, and yet most effective, tools which any company can have in their possession. Yes, these are inherently stressful times. Mediscreen will see you through them. These are times of upheaval, doubt, and fear.

This article has been taken from : http://www.mediscreen.net.au/inherently-stressful-times/

Food Addiction and Alcohol Abuse

Alcohol Drug Testing

Food addiction is just another part of covering up or masking the problem in someone’s life. Food addiction is the emotional eating of food, even if you are not hungry, because the endorphins released from the digestive process and the feeling of fullness in your tummy make you feel secure and wanted and loved. It can also help with feeling of protection or feelings of starvation, either need of which produces more compulsive eating than is necessary.

For instance, when the author was homeless for several weeks and not receiving enough food from the shelter, they found that it took a couple of years, even with plenty of food the whole time, to get over the fear of being hungry again.

It does not take very long for people to develop a sense of longing and fear of loss that they will do just about anything to get rid of. In fact, many people have experienced emotional, physical, or mental hunger in their lives for just long enough that they have some sort of connection with this feeling of loss, and do one of two things. They may identify with it and talk about how holy it is to be able to suffer. Or, contrarily, they may fear it so much that they will do anything to work things out so that they will never have to have those experiences again.

Workplace drug testing is part of a relatively new (thirty year old) regulation where companies can fire their employees based upon drug and alcohol abuse while on the jobsite. This enables businesses all over Australia to set specific company policies concerning substance abuse and to be legally covered in that area. Since Mediscreen is NATA accredited for urine testing, we advise you to go with us for your workplace drug testing needs. Drug testing equipment can be found at our sister site, but we provide onsite drug and alcohol screening services. We want you to have a place where you feel you can work safely without the threat of someone bringing substance abuse into the workplace environment. Drug screening is definitely a part of increasing the atmosphere of comfort and security in a business.

This article has been taken from : http://www.mediscreen.net.au/food-addiction-and-alcohol-abuse/

Follow Through

Alcohol testing

When someone says that a person has a lot of follow through, they mean that that person sees further into the future than most people and they check up on processes which have been started to make sure that everyone and everything is exactly as it should be according to future projections or opinions. Follow through means that you don’t just do the work you are asked to do. It means that you make sure that the purpose for the work is fulfilled, and that this purpose fits in appropriately with the overall business plan of the company. Finally, follow through allows you to have extra confidence in certain employees because you know that, if there is a problem, they’ll find out about it.

Workplace drug testing screens employees for alcohol or drugs in their system while they are at work. Specifically, onsite drug and alcohol testing does this. Laboratories require you to leave work and at that point, any ingested drugs or alcohol may not be as visible on tests. Mediscreen is accredited by NATA for medical testing, and brings us the very best in onsite drug and alcohol testing. We believe in follow through, and we think that having a good system in place for bringing drug screening to workplaces all over Australia is much better than making everyone drive to a laboratory.

Onsite drug & alcohol testing helps you to get all of your screening done while everyone is right there at your business place. It is quick. It is simple. More than anything, it helps you to get something necessary out of the way rather than allowing it to determine everyone’s schedules and transportation and everything else. You are in control, not the drug screening process. You can save time and money and effort, not waste those things. Mediscreen brings drug & alcohol testing to you with great follow through. You can schedule for all of your regular employee screenings and we will come to your business place, no matter where you are in Australia. That’s what we offer: we come to you. When you are looking for drug screening and great follow through, look no further than Mediscreen.

This article has been taken from : http://www.mediscreen.net.au/follow-through/

Feeling Good about Your Business’ Fitness

Drug Test Perth

Feeling good about your business’ fitness often has to do with exactly how fit your business really is. For example, if your company is financially fit but has lazy, drug abusing employees, than it is only partway toward that ultimate lean body that it needs. Fitness is defined by multiple factors, including management, executive leadership, properly screened employees, and financial accountability and responsibility to the owners of the business.

In order to feel good about your company’s fitness, you need to have all of these areas developed and continually fit and flexible. You need to be able to look at your company, feel pride, feel satisfaction, know that you are doing well and keeping trim, and to be able to appropriately contribute to the growth, production and fitness of the business yourself.

In fact, you are one of the main reasons why your business can be either fit or flabby. Do you regularly screen your employees for drugs or alcohol? Drug screening brings workers to a minimum standard of behavior before they can even begin to work for your company. Alcohol testing and further workplace drug testing retains this edge and keeps people from becoming too slovenly in their behavior and too careless about their attitude toward the workplace. Workplace drug testing laws are meant to protect high hazard industries, and furthermore, this is why Mediscreen has become one of the top companies providing onsite drug and alcohol testing to Australian businesses.

In fact, Mediscreen is NATA accredited for urine testing, and we believe in keeping your staffroom stocked with well tested employees. There is a certain energy to the workings and operation of a truly fit company. It is more enjoyable to work for, the employees are happier overall, and drug screening is meant to keep all of this in fine form. Therefore, there is that certain energy associated with your business’ fitness and overall health and wellbeing. It means that everyone is busy, happy, and bringing revenue for the whole company. It means that you are in a strong, executive position when all of your employees are screened and have good test results. For more onsite drug & alcohol testing information.

This article has been taken from : http://www.mediscreen.net.au/feeling-good-about-your-business-fitness/

Fear and Panic

Drug Screening

Have you ever been in one of those situations where you think that there is no possible way out? It seems like it’s all just too much for you. The walls are closing in on you and you start to panic.

Panic attacks happen pretty frequently, actually. In fact, they’re not even a recent occurrence.

For centuries, doctors were called in because someone was “having a spasm” or “having a fit”. In these cases, they were not having a physical stroke but an emotional panic attack. Fear builds up inside of you and you clench your jaw or hold your breath or do whatever it is that you do to calm yourself down, and then you try to hold the fear down, rather than gradually and slowly letting it out. At some point, the fear, rather like a volcano, come exploding out and you start freaking out all over the place. You feel as if there is nothing worse than you are feeling right now. You are in agony, but it is not physical agony.

Some people call this weak.

It cannot be weak. It has been happening for centuries now. It’s obviously a common human reaction to stress and worry.

Your employees may succumb to this, as well. If they do, a few of them may turn to substance abuse to calm their nerves or take the edge off, so to speak. Of course, substance abuse only make the problem worse, not better, but many people take this path, anyway, because they don’t want to feel the pain anymore. They just want to calm down and they do so in an very unnatural way.

Do not panic.

Instead, find someone who can relate to your problem and then have them make several suggestions for ways to get out of it. In the meantime, make sure that your business is using onsite drug and alcohol screening from Mediscreen. Mediscreen is a NATA accredited company which provides onsite drug and alcohol testing right in your place of business. We cannot control anyone’s panic, but we can bring you the tools to see who might need to talk to you.

This article has been taken from : http://www.mediscreen.net.au/fear-and-panic/

Employee Drug Screening and Workplace Friendships

Drug Testing Australia

Friendships are sometimes hard to find and develop, particularly if you find yourself to be a rather quiet person who enjoys the presence of your own company rather than being in a crowd of other people. Good friends are even harder to find, and that goes for everyone. When you work with someone, you may call them your friend, but the truth is that they may be just an acquaintance. They may see you every day, you may pass the time by the water cooler, and the whole situation may be light and friendly, but there is no real depth of meaning or loyalty behind any of your interactions and you may never even see each other outside of the office. It is all a part of the workplace atmosphere and nothing else.

However, you may have true friends at the office or on the jobsite. It may be necessary for you to work to maintain these friendships, particularly if working together makes you inept at keeping the friendship as equal or as healthy as you’d like it to be. This is especially difficult to maintain if one of you is subordinate to the other.

If you have a friend at work and they begin acting…rather strangely…what do you do? You must get help for your friend. It is what is best for them and what is best for you and all the other coworkers. As a company, your business must be well maintained with workers who are safe and reliable, and if someone is abusing drugs or alcohol, then the whole thing can start to be poisoned.

Onsite drug & alcohol testing is part of Mediscreen’s screening program where your employees are tested right there at work. It’s easy and effective, but it also enables business to have their workers tested under otherwise more limited conditions. Now, everyone can be screened, which promotes health and safety. It also promotes protection of your company’s assets. As for your own assets, if your friend is acting abnormally, they may need to be screened in which case it is definitely in their best interests to be tested and evaluated. Then they can receive the help that they need to start living a functional life. Call Mediscreen today to schedule an appointment for onsite drug and alcohol testing.

This article has been taken from : http://www.mediscreen.net.au/employee-drug-screening-and-workplace-friendships/

Eat, Drink and Be Merry

Drug Test Perth

Holidays and office festivities are occasions for business parties or any number of festive celebrations which your company might enjoy. Your employees, however, may be suffering from alcoholism or drug abuse, which will only increase during these times of “eat, drink and be merry.”

Naturally, the whole of point of the “eat, drink, and be merry” is the end part “…for tomorrow we die.” It is meant to be a futile statement, intended to produce as much celebration as possible before returning to the doldrums of work. Naturally, it is something that many people think, whether consciously or sub consciously, will help them to make their lives more interesting.

This is a mistake.

This is a big mistake.

The entire point of the original statement was made before wartime, when everyone feasted and enjoyed the pleasures of life before they met the oncoming battle and perhaps gave their lives for their country or cause or whatever. In today’s world, unless your job involves being whipped half to death while being tied to a stake, your career shouldn’t suffer because you have this “wartime” mentality. However, the low emotional intelligence of many employees have led to experience severe psychological pain, which results in the need to numb it or mask it with some sort of illicit substance. Thus, substance abuse in the workplace is born…

Naturally, workplace drug testing does a little bit to repair this damage, just from the threat of job loss alone. However, it is otherwise very inept in preventing such behavior, and really, such behavior cannot be prevented. It can only be tested, caught, and then evaluated after the fact. Onsite drug & alcohol testing has made employee screening much easier and quicker, but it still cannot prevent anything. However, drug and alcohol testing is not meant to be preventative. It is meant to give you information, so that you can make future decisions. This is insanely helpful if you have one opinion of a worker and in reality their performance is not as good as someone else’s because the first person was high at the time. First impressions are easily manipulated, and that’s what many addicts count on. Help your business to stay healthy.

This article has been taken from : http://www.mediscreen.net.au/eat-drink-and-be-merry/

Business Statistics and Employee Turnaround

Workplace Drug Testing

When you are looking over your employee turnaround numbers, be sure and take into account all of the money required to let someone go, give them any severance if that is due, and then the cost of having other employees do overtime while you find a replacement. On top of that, there is the cost of training an employee before they can actually begin bringing value to your company as a whole.

Truly, it is more important to hire the right employee in the first place, and hold onto them, then it is to bring want and destruction upon your company’s financial statement. For instance, if you simply had very low employee turnaround and very loyal workers who value their jobs, then you have the recipe for success and it becomes profitable to think of drug alcohol testing as being one of your company’s assets, in addition to being an expenditure.

Drug testing Australia is meant to be helpful and to lead to only hiring the best employees. However, a lot of businesses only use it on an ad-hoc basis, but not necessarily as part of their initial hiring procedures. That is, of course, not very good. And many businesses which do use onsite drug and alcohol screening find it extremely cost effective to use screening in hiring employees, because it indicates how much they can initially trust an employee to hold up their end of the employer-employee relationship. In fact, there are many reasons to retain people who are able to maintain this relationship, because loyalty and faithfulness is inherently within them.

That is a powerful asset to have on your workforce.

Truly, Mediscreen is accredited by NATA for onsite drug testing because we have skill in our areas of expertise. Workplace drug testing does not have to be a big deal with a lot of turnings and winding roads. It can just be a simple, basic recipe for success which all businesses should use, especially when their employee turnover rates are higher than normal. In order to implement onsite drug & alcohol testing, feel free to give us here at Mediscreen.

This article has been taken from : http://www.mediscreen.net.au/business-statistics-and-employee-turnaround/

Australia Drug Testing versus The Rest of the World

Alcohol testing

Drug screening is a part of a natural process of making sure that your employees are doing okay. When they are not, then their test results reveal unwanted information. When Australia steps out onto the world market, our quick and efficient drug screening and alcohol testing methods can really contribute highly to our competitive edge.

No, we are not trying to make this all about nationalism, but in truth, it is a little bit about nationalism.

What sets the Australia business marketplace apart from other, foreign marketplaces? Well, the first thing is that we are really resilient. Our people and our spirits are incredibly innovative, eco-seeking, and highly resilient, to a point that our economy is now one of the strongest in the world, while other first world countries are struggling to recover from the global recession and all of the drama which is occurring in Europe right now.

What sets us apart is our ability to see an opportunity, wait for the exactly correct time to act, and then to pounce like a puma! Our strengths lie in our ability to foresee what will happen in the world market, to prepare for it, and to be ready when disaster or problems strike anyone else.

It’s good to be Australian.

Mediscreen typifies this spirit by bringing onsite drug & alcohol testing to the marketplace and by making it convenient, easy and affordable for Australian businesses to appropriately use alcohol testing and drug screening on their employees. This makes it quite simple to evaluate your workers, send them back to work, store their records onsite, and get back to your own business.

Efficiency is great if it actually brings appropriate action to the table. Do we sacrifice quality for efficiency? Not at all. In fact, Mediscreen is accredited by NATA for onsite drug testing. This is only a part of our quiver full of business arrows. We know that, at any point in time, you need to be able to get accurate readings on your employees, especially when you are singling out specific individuals whom you are sure are abusing substances while on the job. 

This article has been taken from : http://www.mediscreen.net.au/australia-drug-testing-versus-the-rest-of-the-world/ 

Using D&A and Health Apps to Engage Workers

Every day new apps are introduced in the marketplace, and they are becoming more useful all the time. Though they have been around for many years now, it is only the last couple of years that they exploded in terms of numbers. The more apps that are developed, the more uses people are discovering for them. They are used for shopping, finding businesses, banking, and so on. Now they are also being developed as tools for use in workplace drug and alcohol education programs.

Apps represent the personalisation of technology because they streamline accessing the information people are most interested in. For those not familiar with apps, the term “app” is short for application. Apps are self-contained programs that make it easier to use mobile technology like smartphones and tablet computers when looking for information on the web by making the information readable on the smaller screens. There are also web-based apps that run on personal computers.

Creative Worker Education Approaches

Employers interested in using technology will like knowing that there are now apps that can be used in a variety of ways to streamline worker education programs concerned with drug and alcohol use or that can be shared with workers interested in technology tools that help them stay substance free. For example, an attendee at that the Australian School Librarian Association wrote about an app that enables the creation and recording of live screen action and could be used to create tutorials. It functions as an interactive whiteboard tool and includes the ability to animate, import, narrate, and much more.¹ Employers could conceivably use such an app with this type of functionality to develop interactive presentations on workplace policies and procedures or to educate workers on the safety and health issues related to alcohol and illicit drug use.

There are many apps like the interactive whiteboard available today, and some were specifically written around the theme of drugs and alcohol. They are becoming so numerous and so popular that the Australian Drug Information Network now does monthly app reviews. Each month, employers can review the apps to see if any would be useful in the workplace or if they could share any of the app information with workers to encourage their use. For example, as of September 2013 the apps included:²

• App that provides information about various drugs with the drug lists sorted under different headings like pharmaceuticals and chemicals
• App to streamline reading of research reports and provide interactive ability
• App that enables calorie consumption and burning (including alcohol) and progress sharing with others, so could be used as a workplace health program tool
• Appt that acts as a buddy to anyone who wants to quit smoking

Apps and More Apps

There are apps addressing alcohol consumption, apps providing access to the Victoria Better Health Channel, and an app that explains how Ice or crystal methamphetamine affects a user’s body. The apps can be used as drug and alcohol education tools in workplace programs, to deliver training in off-site locations, and to encourage active worker interest and participation in promoting a substance free environment for all employees. Employers looking for tools that better engage workers and provide up-to-date information should review the available apps.

Technology impacts almost everything today from apps to sophisticated drug & alcohol testing supplies and equipment. Mediscreen (mediscreen.net.au) takes advantage of technology in every way possible, including for the delivering of efficient services and drug screening results via a web-based portal.

This article has been taken from : http://www.mediscreen.net.au/using-da-and-health-apps-to-engage-workers/

Chemical Abuse or Chemical Dependence?

People use the terms “dependence” and “abuse” interchangeably when talking about illicit drugs, but are they really the same thing? Some researchers would say they are not the same thing at all because abuse refers to behaviours, whilst dependence refers to psychological and physical changes brought on by substance use. The simplest way to look at it is that some people can abuse drugs or alcohol for years and never develop dependence on either. As a result, researchers developed criteria for defining dependence, which has implications for employers. For example, should an employer treat two workers differently when the person is not physically addicted to the drug and could simply choose to change behaviours, whilst the other person is dependent and has lost control? These are the types of difficult questions that employers are faced with when dealing with substance use in the workplace and makes having a drug and alcohol policy in place even more important.

Instead of just saying “dependence”, it is better to say “chemical dependence” or “substance dependence” because the implications are more obvious. A typical misunderstanding is that withdrawal and chemical dependence are the same things. That is not necessarily true. Cocaine is an addictive drug, but users may experience few observable withdrawal symptoms. Yet the person could be dependent. In reverse, a person may go through withdrawal but that still does not necessarily mean the person is substance dependent. Some people stop using illicit drugs and experience physical symptoms, but never mentally crave the drugs again. They no longer believe the drugs and alcohol are necessary for functioning and decide to stay away from the substances.

Dual Nature of Dependency

Substance or chemical dependency has both a psychological and physical component. The dual nature of dependency is what sets it apart from abuse. A person who is a chemical dependent has physical and psychological dependence but does not necessarily experience withdrawal symptoms when chemical use ends. The physical dependency symptoms are noticeable when the body begins to experience unpleasant side effects as the drugs or alcohol wear off or the substances are used less frequently. The physical symptoms of withdrawal are different for each person and depend on the drug. Effects include nausea, crawling sensations under the skin, difficulty breathing, excessive sweating, tremors, and many others. The psychological effects associated with withdrawal include anxiety, irritability, poor concentration, depression, and so on. In some cases, the withdrawal symptoms indicate a dangerous health situation, like someone having grand mal seizures (physical) or hallucinations (psychological).

Though employers need to be familiar with withdrawal symptoms, they do not determine whether a person is an abuser or dependent. As mentioned, someone can withdraw from drugs or alcohol and not experience withdrawal symptoms. Chemical dependency is best summarised with three words: Obsessive, Compulsive, Excessive. This translates into a person who believes that it is impossible to function without using the drugs or alcohol. There is a continuum of substance use that goes like this: non-use, experimental use, recreational use, problematic use, and dependent use. A person reaching a condition of dependency feels a loss of control and experiences intense cravings both psychologically and physically. The life focus becomes ensuring there is always a supply of drugs or alcohol ready for consumption or that can be easily obtained.²

Signs, Signs, Everywhere are Signs

Before a person becomes chemically dependent, there will be signs the employer may notice without realise what is happening. For example, problematic users begin to have relationship, financial and health problems. Drug and alcohol tolerance increases, but the substance user is avoiding admitting the problem exists. Tolerance for the substances increases. A drug abuser can often learn to change behaviours in a short-term treatment or counselling program. However, a person who is dependent is always “recovering” after stopping drug and alcohol use. The person can stay off drugs and alcohol but may need a stronger, ongoing support system. An abuser may be able to take a drink or use cannabis (not advisable, of course) and not devolve into addiction. A truly dependent person cannot use chemicals under any circumstances because they trigger the life-altering cravings. Health professionals are learning that some people recidivate over and over again because they are chemical dependents and not just chemical abusers.

Dependence may or may not include withdrawal symptoms. However, it always has characteristics that include the inability to control use, expended effort to obtain the drug, greater drug use than was intended, drug use time replacing time for important activities, continued use despite awareness of personal physical or psychological problems. Each chemically dependent person does not necessarily have all of these issues. A dependent person is defined as having three or more of these characteristics with withdrawal symptoms and increased drug tolerance possibly accounting for one or two of the symptoms.³

Drugs of Choice

Dependency is not limited to illicit drugs. South Australia has a Drugs of Dependence Unit (DDU) with drugs of dependence defined as prescription medicines that have a higher potential than other drugs for misuse, abuse and dependence. The drugs are recognised as having therapeutic value. The list of drugs of dependence is long, and of real interest to employers is the fact the prescription drugs contain some of the same ingredients as illicit drugs. They include opioids like oxycodone and stimulants like cocaine.¹ However, the important fact employers need to keep in mind is that a legal opioid threatens workplace safety as much as an illicit opioid.

Most employers are not qualified to assess whether a worker is a drug and alcohol abuser or a chemical dependent. The random drug & alcohol testing program is a means of identifying who is using harmful substances in the workplace. Once it is determined an employee is using substances that impact workplace health and safety, possessing knowledge about the complexity of substance use and its impacts helps employers make better decisions about the next steps to take.

The first step in identifying abusers and dependents is implementing a quality random drug and alcohol testing program at all employer locations. That is where Mediscreen can offer invaluable services. Mediscreen (mediscreen.net.au) routinely provides screening services aligned to workplace needs wherever those needs exist.

This article has been taken from : http://www.mediscreen.net.au/chemical-abuse-or-chemical-dependence/

Opiates and the New Opium Houses

There was a time when opium houses were all over London and any other major port city which gave sailors and the exotic travelers a break from reality. When we say this, we mean a really…really…long break from reality.

Opium is one of the most psychedelic drugs that you can take, and it is extremely powerful at removing you from your current reality and essentially going on a rollercoaster ride in your own mind. Using past experiences in your life, hidden memories, or just your plain old imagination, opium can take you on a trip that will be so realistic and so touchable, that you will feel as if your senses are really there and that this is not, in fact, a dream after all.

We are not intended the previous paragraph to be in support of opium at all.

Instead, we are trying to explain how powerful the drug is and why many people would choose this form of addiction to other forms which simply take the edge off of your current reality.

Opiates are drugs, sometimes legal pharmaceuticals, which have opium based components, and therefore give the abuser a very diluted version of real opium. Workplace drug testing is mean to help businesses understand who may be abusing these substances on a regular basis and who has real prescriptions for such things. Mediscreen, a NATA accredited medical testing company, specializes onsite drug and alcohol screening, and we are very interested in protecting the Australian business community from any potential threat from anyone who might be abusing opium or opium based drugs.

Alcohol drug testing is meant to reveal data about specific or common drugs and to be used by businesses on a regular basis to help out their other employees evaluative measures. However, when it comes to real opium or anything that carries strong opium qualities, the sooner identified the better. Drug& alcohol testing is meant to deliver data and this is something about which everyone should be informed if their employees are delving into this stuff. By removing the mind completely from reality, employees can really be a danger to themselves or to others and not even know it at the time. For more information regarding onsite drug & alcohol testing services, call Mediscreen today.

This article has been taken from : http://www.mediscreen.net.au/opiates-and-the-new-opium-houses/

How Habits of Failure are Bred

Failure is an interesting concept which many people understand but which few have knowledge of with regard to how much of it is in their own lives. For example, you may consider not cleaning out your garage to be failure, but you may also not be aware of the fact that you set yourself up for failure by always seeing that project as more and more failure that you are piling on top of your head. Workplace drug testing laws were implemented for high hazard industries, after all, but they are not required in non-hazardous vocations. People still have freedom of choice and a lot of people choose to breed habits of failure within themselves.

Now, when you make it easy to succeed, in your own mind, then you begin easily acquiring success in your life. It doesn’t take much to succeed when you set your bar fairly low, and setting the bar low does NOT mean that you have low standards. Remember, you can still achieve as much as you want to achieve in life. However, when you are thinking about success itself, the word, the concept, the idea, make sure that you make it easy on yourself to achieve success every day. A famous business man, a friend of Kevin Trudeau, would play golf with him and, no matter how bad his shots were, he would turn back to Kevin smiling just as brightly as the sun. Finally, Kevin asked him why he was so happy when he was making all of these bad shots. The man said, “As long as the ball moves forward, I’ve succeeded.”

That man made it easy upon himself to succeed and to feel successful. If only we all had that kind of attitude about our lives. As long as everyone is alive, warm, well fed, and reasonably satisfied with life at the end of the day, then the family has been successful.

Mediscreen bring workplace drug testing to your business, and we make it easy for you to succeed. All you have to do is schedule an appointment with us, we will come to your worksite or workplace environment, we will do drug screening and alcohol testing for your employees, and then you are done! It’s easy, it’s accurate, and we would be honored to have you as a client.

This article has been taken from : http://www.mediscreen.net.au/how-habits-of-failure-are-bred/