LAP History

Labor Assistance Professionals (LAP) was established in 1991 to promote the development of peer-based Member Assistance Programs (MAPs) within the labor movement.

Until the 1970s, most substance abuse programs in the US were informal, community based, voluntary self-help groups such as AA. The development of a treatment continuum of care increased the number of effective options available for help. Unfortunately, many programs have become lost in large complicated health care bureaucracies.

LAP was organized to help reform an overly bureaucratized treatment and mis- managed health care system that makes health care increasingly remote from, and unresponsive to, the real needs of drug and alcohol-abusing workers.

With roots back to those union beneficial societies of the 1840s that focused on helping the alcoholic worker, LAP believes that today's preoccupation with building large professional bureaucracies must be balanced by a return to focusing on the needs of the workers and their families.

As insurance companies have sought to restrict access to treatment, LAP has begun to advocate for a revival of the traditions of worker self-help and mutual aid through well-trained member assistance programs.

Get tough on drugs politics limit help for substance abusers and discourage substance abusers from seeking assistance because the workers are afraid of losing their jobs.

MAPs define drug use at work as unacceptable because it creates safety risks and otherwise impairs job performance. They emphasize the role of peer counselors--trained union members who volunteer their time to prevent drug abuse, motivate their co-workers who have drug abuse problems to accept referral for help, and support them when they return to work--union members helping each other to stay clean and sober.

The ultimate goal of a MAP is to create a working environment where union members exercise self-control over behavior and take for granted that using alcohol or other drugs is unacceptable and act accordingly, and where those who suffer from substance abuse problems will receive help for their illnesses.