The Institute for Work & Health (IWH) is a Canadian leader in work injury and disability prevention research. An independent, not-for-profit organization, IWH conducts and shares actionable research to promote, protect and improve the health and safety of working people.
Supervisors are busy. They’re always juggling multiple demands for their time and attention. But that moment when they learn a worker is injured, do they react with concern and empathy or blame and skepticism? As the latest research-based video from the Institute sums up, a supervisor’s response can make a difference to whether an injured worker returns to work successfully within a few months. It’s one of the ways supervisors matter.
Congratulations to Dr. Arif Jetha, who has been promoted from associate scientist to scientist at the Institute. Jetha, who joined IWH in 2015 as a Mustard post-doctoral fellow, focuses his research on life-course differences in the work participation of people living with chronic disabling conditions, with a particular interest in the early labour market experiences of millennial young adults. Details about Jetha’s projects are available on his IWH website bio page.
Looking for research findings and resources on our website about a particular topic? Try our “Selected topics” page. You'll find it under “Our research” on the drop-down menu. From aging to young workers, from cannabis to violence at work, from health care to construction, we might just have the collection of research summaries, journal articles, tools and presentations on your topic of interest.
Workers new to a job, regardless of their age, face higher risks of injury. This workplace health and safety message is based on several studies—including some by the Institute for Work & Health (IWH)—and it has spread far and wide. However, it was only recently that a systematic review on newness and injury risk was carried out. The review, conducted by IWH, confirms a link between newness and the risk of acute injuries—but is inconclusive on the link between newness and the risk of musculoskeletal disorders.
Research suggests that occupational health and safety (OHS) and health promotion programs provide greater benefits to workers’ overall health when they are integrated within an organization’s health and safety strategy. To learn about the types of workplaces where such integration might be easier to implement, a new IWH study set out to learn the common characteristics of Ontario workplaces that offer both. Findings are now summarized in a new Research Highlights.
IN THE CURRENT ISSUE...
Greater job control, job security and social support are linked to both lower risks of mental illness and greater likelihood of flourishing mental well-being.
Evidence-based health and safety benchmarks are now available for building construction employers in Manitoba, thanks to an IWH collaboration with the Construction Safety Association of Manitoba.
New systematic review confirms widespread message that new workers face higher risks of acute injury.
Integrate evidence-based policies and practices into your occupational health and safety, return-to-work and rehabilitation programs. IWH has created a number of tools and guides based on our research findings that can help improve program outcomes.
Find out how IWH research is making a difference. Read our impact case studies, in which policy-makers, workplaces and other stakeholders in health, safety and disability prevention tell how IWH research helped improve their policies, programs and practices.
Whether it’s a policy briefing, a systematic review summary or the highlights of a specific research project, we’ve compiled a number of plain-language summaries to help you understand the research we’re doing, what we have found, and how we found it.
Learn directly from the researchers themselves about their latest findings in health, safety and disability prevention. We host regular presentations (in person or live stream) through our IWH Speaker Series and our annual Nachemson lecture.