January 2019

A look back at 2018: the Top 5 At Work stories

Did you catch last year’s most popular At Work articles reporting on Institute for Work & Health (IWH) research findings? Here are the five most-read articles from the 2018 issues of IWH’s quarterly newsletter:

1. Supervisors who react with support can help injured workers return to the job
2. Benefits outweigh costs for workplaces that accommodate people with mental illness
3. Developing a new screening tool of psychosocial hazards
4. Embedding essential skills training in OHS lessons can boost learning: study
5. IWH’s new guide on supporting workers with depression integrates research with practice

If you have colleagues who might be interested in our research findings, please suggest they sign up at the link below.

Sign up for IWH newsletters

Feedback wanted on a draft strategy to improve work choices for people with disabilities

Public consultation is now under way on a draft strategy for building an inclusive workforce—one where people with and without disabilities have the same choices in their jobs and careers. The organizations behind the draft strategy, hosts of the Disability and Work in Canada 2018 conference held last December in Ottawa, are hoping to gather input on the document from as many perspectives as possible.

Find out more

SAFE Work Manitoba’s safety culture framework incorporates IWH performance measure, expertise

In 2013, the province of Manitoba embarked on an ambitious five-year plan to strengthen its workplace injury and illness prevention strategy. Key to that plan was building a strong culture of workplace safety across the province. To that end, the government agency leading that work, SAFE Work Manitoba, looked for a definition of safety culture and a way to measure it. It turned to IWH’s measure of health and safety performance: the IWH Organizational Performance Metric. A new impact case study tells the story of how Scientist Dr. Ben Amick worked with SAFE Work Manitoba to put the tool to use.

Read the impact case study

Are you better off sitting or standing throughout the work day? IWH video sorts out the confusion

First came all the headlines about the negative health effects of sitting too much throughout the day. Then came other headlines about the risks of standing too long at work. So what are you to make of the seeming contradiction? Well, it’s actually quite simple. In our latest one-minute video (also summarized in Safety+Health magazine), two IWH scientists behind the research offer the take-away message.

Watch and share the video

IWH’s Dr. Nancy Carnide promoted to associate scientist

Congratulations to Dr. Nancy Carnide, who was recently named an associate scientist at the Institute. Previously a post-doctoral fellow at IWH, Carnide was also the recipient of a Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) Vanier Canada Graduate Scholarship and a CIHR Strategic Training Fellowship in Work Disability Prevention. Her current research interests focus on substance use and mental health problems among working populations.

Learn more about Dr. Carnide’s work

Sign up for CRE-MSD webinar on reducing MSDs in construction

On January 22, hear about efforts by researchers at the Centre of Research Expertise for the Prevention of Musculoskeletal Disorders (CRE-MSD) to reduce MSDs in Ontario’s construction sector. Drawing on case studies involving plumbers and workers handling ladders, Dr. Phil Bigelow and Niki Carlan will share their insights on how to implement injury prevention programs within the complex and dynamic environments that are typical of construction worksites. They will also discuss how to apply what they learned in other sectors. Join CRE-MSD and the Work Wellness and Disability Prevention Institute (WWDPI) for this and other construction series webinars listed at the CRE-MSD events page.

See other CRE-MSD events

Uyen Vu
Communications Associate
613-979-7742
uvu@iwh.on.ca