Substance Use Awareness
Building Recovery-Informed Workplaces Across the Corporate World.
The national conversation is changing.
“Addiction is not a choice or a personal failing but a complex mental health condition that should be met with empathy and support.”
-The Princess of Wales, message marking Addiction Awareness Week 2025 (shared via The Forward Trust)
70% of people with a substance use disorder are in work.
OECD, Health at Work 2023
Substance use is a significant, and often least discussed, pressure in high-performing organisations. Our Substance Use Awareness sessions open up that conversation directly: reducing stigma, building understanding, and giving colleagues practical confidence in how to support themselves and each other.
Format
Each session is tailored to the organisation and can stand alone or form part of a series. For maximum impact, we recommend a three-part series delivered across the year, each session building on the last, as delivered for A&O Shearman:
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Session one: opening the conversation and reducing stigma
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Session two: recognising pressure, coping behaviours and early warning signs
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Session three: practical tools for supporting colleagues and sustaining change
Sessions are available virtually, hybrid or in person, and can be adapted for regional offices, hybrid teams or a global workforce.
Who is it for?
Firm-wide wellbeing calendars, leadership audiences, HR and people teams, and mixed internal groups where practical engagement matters.
Pricing (2026)
Tailored awareness session
60 minutes including Q&A: typically £5,000 to £7,500 + VAT
Our core offer for firms and organisations that want to open up a thoughtful, practical and professionally relevant conversation around substance use, coping behaviours, stigma, recovery and workplace culture. Each session is tailored to the organisation and designed to help colleagues better understand the issue, recognise its relevance in high-pressure working environments, and feel more confident about how support can begin. This format is particularly well suited to firm-wide wellbeing calendars, awareness weeks, leadership events, and wider people and culture programmes.
Interactive workshop
90 to 120 minutes: typically £7,500 to £12,500 + VAT
A more in-depth and practical format designed for discussion, reflection and application. Often used for managers, HR teams, wellbeing leads, DEI groups, leadership audiences, or mixed internal groups where practical engagement matters. Workshops can explore themes such as safe conversations, signs of concern, boundaries, signposting, psychological safety, and how to respond constructively without becoming clinicians.
Three-part Substance Use Awareness Series
Quoted according to scope, format, tailoring, and speaker requirements. A more strategic option for organisations that want to build momentum over time, deepen understanding, and support longer-term culture change. Sessions can be aligned to internal priorities, awareness weeks, or key points in the organisational calendar.
Enterprise and strategic delivery
For larger firms, financial institutions, international organisations, or clients requiring more complex tailoring, leadership alignment, wider stakeholder engagement, or enhanced internal communications support, we are happy to provide a clear fixed proposal. Every engagement includes pre-session briefing, tailored framing, expert facilitation, and follow-up resources.
We are also happy to discuss more focused entry-point formats for organisations with smaller budgets or narrower objectives.
Logistics
VAT is added to all fees. Travel and accommodation are charged for in-person delivery outside London. Once a date is confirmed and held in our diary, we issue an invoice with 30-day payment terms from the date of booking. At that stage, we also begin planning the framing, materials, and communications needed for a smooth and high-quality delivery.
Tell us your audience, preferred format and timeline, and we will come back with a clear, fixed fee.
Three-Part Substance Use Talk Series
For maximum impact, we recommend a three-part series spaced across the year. Each session builds on the last, helping your teams gain deeper awareness, resilience and confidence to engage with this vital topic.
We can tailor the format and delivery for your offices, hybrid needs or global footprint. Below are suggested timings and themes:
Option 1 – Calendar-based delivery
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September (Recovery Month) – Opening the Conversation on Substance Use and Recovery
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October – Resilience, Recovery and High-Performance Environments
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December – Belonging, Boundaries and Behaviour (aligned with year-end parties and social events)
Option 2 – Thematic flexibility
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Breaking the Silence: Opening Up the Conversation on Substance Use
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Recovery and Resilience: How People Heal and Why It Matters at Work
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Beyond Recovery: How Colleagues Become Allies
Series package (3 sessions): Available on request
If you book a series of three talks, we offer a 10% discount on the total fee. This discount is applied to the standard per-talk price listed in the ‘Single Talk Pricing’ table.
We are happy to walk you through a deck or suggest titles based on your internal strategy or wellbeing calendar.
Once a date is confirmed and held in our diary, we’ll issue an invoice along with our standard terms of business. These include 30-day payment terms from the date of booking, which helps us manage delivery and planning smoothly. As a small business, that support is always appreciated.
Let us help you bring this essential conversation to your team.