In its 2023 National Survey on Drug Use and Health, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) estimated approximately 48.5 million people in the United States age 12 or older met the diagnostic criteria for a substance use disorder at some point during that year. This represented approximately 17.1 percent of all persons 12 or older. The same survey estimated 14.6 million adults, representing 5.7 percent of all adults, suffered from some form of serious mental illness in 2023.1
If not properly treated a professional’s substance abuse and/or mental illness can result in impairment, which is generally defined as the loss of some or all of one’s physical or mental abilities.2
Impairment invariably impacts a professional’s work product and can raise serious concerns about their ability to practice their profession safely. In the case of health care professionals, these risks are further heightened by easy access to controlled substances and the vulnerability of patients to mistakes and substandard care.