According to a recent blog post from the National Institute for Occupational Safety & Health (NIOSH), the opioid overdose epidemic continues to claim lives across the country with a record 47,600 overdose deaths in 2017. The crisis is taking an especially devastating toll on certain parts of the U.S. workforce, such as construction, which has high injury rates, physically demanding work, and other contributing factors such as high job demands, job insecurity, and lack of control over tasks. Medication-assisted treatment (MAT) has been effective for many people with opioid use disorder (OUD), allowing them to regain control of their OUD. A new resource from NIOSH, “Workplace Solutions: Medication-Assisted Treatment for Opioid Use Disorder” provides general information about MAT and information for employers wishing to assist or support workers with OUD.

Learn more about MAT and the opioid epidemic by reading the original Science Blog post: https://blogs.cdc.gov/niosh-science-blog/2019/05/24/opioid-mat/.