Center for Work, Health, & Well-being Resources

Our workplaces shape our health, whether through the stress of our workloads, pay and benefits we receive, interacting with physical surroundings, or obtaining support from colleagues and supervisors. This is as true for addiction treatment organizations as it is for any other workplace. However, the implications of working conditions in these settings are wider since how these workplaces shape worker health also impacts the health of clients seeking addiction treatment. Creating working conditions that support the health and wellbeing of the addiction treatment workforce is therefore central to providing consistent and effective addiction treatment for clients.

The considerable rise in substance use disorders has strained addiction treatment services across the United States, and this strain can be noticeably felt in organizations operating across Massachusetts—a state with one of the highest rates of overdose deaths in the country. The addiction treatment workforce has long been characterized by high rates of turnover and attrition, but with the rising rates of addiction, workforce shortages have greater implications for people seeking addiction care. This may be particularly true for residential addiction treatment facilities, which provide 24/7 care for individuals as they move into recovery.

The Substance Use Provider Occupational Wellbeing (SUPOW) Study aimed to understand how working conditions and larger socio-political influences impact the health and wellbeing of Massachusetts residential addiction providers working in state-funded facilities. This study also sought to identify how the health and wellbeing of providers impacted the organizations at which they worked and client care. As part of this community-initiated study, frontline providers, supervisors, and executive leaders participated in interviews and focus groups to share their perspectives and observations working in residential treatment across Massachusetts regions. As such, all analyses presented in this report are from the perspective of providers and leaders with first-hand experience working in residential addiction treatment.

The Thriving from Work User Manual provides a definition for "Thriving from Work" and why it is important to measure, the process used to develop the Thriving from Work conceptual framework and questionnaires, the full English versions of the two questionnaires including the short-form and the long-form, and their practical applications.

The Thriving from Work Questionnaire was developed to measure worker well-being. There is currently a short-form (8 item) and a long-form (30 item) version of the questionnaire. The Thriving from Work Questionnaire has been validated in populations of workers in the U.S. and several other countries. The Thriving from Work Questionnaires provide a measure of work-related well-being that can be used in surveys with workers. Developed using a rigorous systematic study design, the questionnaires have been found to be responsive, reliable, and valid across a broad range of settings and sectors. Further study of the utility and psychometric properties of the questionnaires is ongoing.