Project 95 - Broadbrush: Lessons for Today - a brief history of contemporary EAP

Abstract

Forty-five years ago, two representatives from each state traveled to Pinehurst, North Carolina to participate in a three week training program that was to ultimately change the landscape of workplaces in America and around the world. In time, this disparate group came to be known as “The Thundering 100”. They were called upon to meet a challenge which had long vexed medical professionals, corporate managers, and the criminal justice system. It had ruined millions of families and careers, created consternation in the workplace, swelled jail cells and hospital emergency rooms and left lasting scars on both the individuals who were afflicted and their loved ones. The challenge was to intervene earlier in the progression of alcoholism. That meant not waiting until an alcoholic had gone all the way to the bottom of the heap, through hospitals, jails and mental institutions. They would be trained to recognize the earlier, subtler signs and symptoms to trigger an intervention while the alcoholic still had a job, a family and some modicum of self-respect. The setting would not be the streets or courtrooms but the workplace.