Past events

IWH Speaker Series

DASHBash: Celebrating 20 years of the DASH Outcome Measure

Dorcas Beaton, Institute for Work & Health; Carol Kennedy, Institute for Work & Health

2016 marks the 20th anniversary of the Disabilities of the Arm, Shoulder and Hand (DASH) Outcome Measure. In 1996, when the DASH was developed by the Institute for Work & Health (IWH) and the American Association of Orthopedic Surgeons (AAOS), no measure had previously existed to assess the disability and function of the arm, shoulder and hand as a whole. Today, this outcome measure is used across the world in 55 languages and dialects. It has also been cited in about 1,500 journal articles. The DASHBash year kicks off with this seminar that highlights the achievements of this “little tool that grew.” This presentation reviews the conceptual foundations of the DASH, summarizes how the DASH is being used and how it is performing, and addresses some frequently asked questions from our users.

IWH Speaker Series

Examining occupational health and safety among migrant farm workers

Theresa Aversa, Ontario Public Service Employees Union (OPSEU)

Agricultural work is hazardous for all workers, but migrant farm workers are especially vulnerable. Because their status in Canada hinges on their employment, they live under the shadow of a particular kind of job insecurity, one that may compromise their right to workplace health and safety and to workers' compensation. In this plenary, Theresa Aversa examines OHS vulnerability among migrant workers under two different programs: the Seasonal Agricultural Worker Program (SAWP) and the Temporary Foreign Workers Program. She shares findings from her research, drawn primarily from interviews with advocates and system stakeholders, and from participant observation at advocate-organized events. She also discusses what the findings suggest as possible avenues to improved health and safety of migrant workers.

IWH Speaker Series

Agricultural work, food systems and ecosystems: reflections on a research program

Donald Cole, University of Toronto

Agricultural work is performed around the world at a huge range of scales and in a wide variety of ecosystems—from small plots to extensive holdings, from semi-deserts to lush jungles and low-lying wetlands. Tremendous change is taking place, both in terms of how agricultural commodity and labour markets are regulated, and how ecosystems are affected by climate change. How do work and health researchers develop an understanding of the evolving relationships between agricultural work and health, given all these different contexts? In this plenary, Dr. Donald Cole draws on many decades of work and shares reflections on how a research program can address this and related questions.

IWH Speaker Series

Stealth ergonomics: Incorporating MSD prevention into organizations' goals and systems

Richard Wells, Centre of Research Expertise for the Prevention of Musculoskeletal Disorders (CRE-MSD)

The prevention of musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs) has often been treated as a purely occupational health and safety issue. While this approach has made gains over the past few decades, more can be done. Ergonomics has the dual goals of improving both wellbeing and performance. In this plenary, Dr. Richard Wells shows how both MSD and poor product quality share many risk factors, and by addressing organizational goals of quality within an organizations’ management systems, MSD prevention can result in additional resources, effectiveness and sustainability.

IWH Speaker Series

Staying at work with fibromyalgia

Margaret Oldfield, University of Toronto and University Health Network

Staying at work with chronic illness can be difficult. But it's especially so for those with fibromyalgia, a condition that carries considerable stigma. In this plenary, Dr. Margaret Oldfield shares her research on how women with fibromyalgia, along with their family members and co-workers, manage others' perception to avoid stigma and remain at work. She also discusses implications of her findings on workplace practices and policies.

IWH Speaker Series

Can "flexicurity" policies protect workers from the adverse health consequences of temporary employment?

Faraz Vahid Shahidi, University of Toronto

"Flexicurity" policies represent a relatively novel approach to the regulation of work and welfare that aims to combine labour market flexibility with social security. Advocates of this approach argue that, by striking the right balance between these two components, such policies can protect workers from the adverse health and social consequences of flexible employment. In this plenary, Faraz Vahid Shahidi presents his study, which uses data from the European Social Survey to test the theory of flexicurity, with a focus on health inequalities between temporary workers and their permanent counterparts.

Alf Nachemson Memorial Lecture

Using research evidence to help prevent work disability in Ontario

Judy Geary, Former Executive, Workplace Safety and Insurance Board (WSIB)

In 2015, WSIB marked 100 years of service to employers and workers in Ontario. Over the past decade, the Board embarked on significant reforms to strengthen case management services provided to employers and injured workers and to improve vocational rehabilitation services for workers disabled by a work-related injury or illness. These reforms have contributed to the prevention of more than two million lost work days annually in the Ontario economy, according to WSIB. As a member of the WSIB executive team, Judy Geary played a leading role in the design and implementation of these complex reforms. In leading these reforms, Geary drew guidance from the international research on effective practices in work disability prevention. In her lecture, Geary will outline some of the lessons learned in integrating research evidence in the reform of valued public services.

IWH Speaker Series

Incorporating MSD prevention into management systems

Amin Yazdani, University of Waterloo

Musculoskeletal prevention (MSD) programs are seldom integrated into broader management system frameworks. This disconnect can result in poor sustainability and weak management buy-in. In this plenary, Dr. Amin Yazdani makes the case for the integration of MSD prevention into organization's management systems and examines harmonized approaches and tools that can bring MSD prevention "to the table."

IWH Speaker Series

A "stages of change" approach to implementing MSD prevention

Paul Rothmore, University of Adelaide

Our knowledge of musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs) has increased substantially in recent years. But even when workplace interventions designed to prevent MSDs are developed, they are of little use if not properly implemented. In this plenary, Paul Rothmore discusses how implementation could be improved with a better understanding of the process of behaviour change. He shares the latest research on what's called a "stages of change" approach and ways it can be incorporated into the development of workplace interventions.

IWH Speaker Series

Understanding return to work in MSD claims versus psychological injuries, for younger workers versus older workers

Peter Smith, Institute for Work & Health

What are the unique return-to-work challenges facing injured workers at the age of 55 and older? What about the challenges facing those with psychological injuries? Drawing on preliminary findings from a large-scale longitudinal cohort study in Victoria, Australia, IWH Senior Scientist Dr. Peter Smith discusses the differences in return-to-work by age group and by type of injury—and the implications for workers' compensation systems that were designed for worker demographics and work injuries that were very different from today's.

IWH Speaker Series

Preventing injury among caregivers

Whether they are healthcare workers or family members providing care, caregivers are injured at alarming rates. And increasingly, the greatest challenges are seen in the home environment, as hospital care gives way to home care. In this plenary, Dr. Tilak Dutta joins Tara Kajaks to share research on reducing the risk of musculoskeletal injury in caregivers. This research is aimed at identifying activities that place caregivers at greatest risk of injury, developing new tools for caregivers that reduce the risk of injury and developing new methods of training and coaching caregiver on safe work.

IWH Speaker Series

Systematic review of qualitative literature on OHS legislation and regulatory enforcement

Ellen MacEachen, Institute for Work & Health

In tandem with a systematic review on the quantitative literature on occupational health and safety (OHS) regulatory enforcement, this systematic review by Dr. Ellen MacEachen and her team looks at the qualitative literature on how OHS laws are planned and implemented. Qualitative studies are particularly useful for providing context—whether social, legal, economic or otherwise—to help explain events. In this plenary, Dr. MacEachen discusses how the implementation of OHS laws is shaped by ideas around "general duty" laws, coordination between agencies, worker participation in injury prevention, among others.

IWH Speaker Series

Work-related road safety: looking beyond the role of drivers

Sharon Newnam, Monash University, Australia

Organizational context plays a key role in the safety of work-related drivers. To improve driving behaviour, it is necessary to look beyond individuals’ compliance with safety procedures and at the influence of workplace factors, supervisors and senior management. In this presentation, Dr. Sharon Newnam talks about a research program on workplace road safety that addresses these inter-linked contexts and describes interventions designed to mitigate driving risk.

IWH Speaker Series

Work and mental health: capturing natural experiments with longitudinal datasets

Anthony LaMontagne, Deakin University

Mental health problems among workers are a growing concern, but there is a dearth of intervention studies on this issue, whether due to long timelines, high costs, or other feasibility challenges. In this presentation, Dr. Tony LaMontagne describes epidemiological methods to capture changes in work, working conditions and associated changes in mental health. He makes the case that capturing natural experiments in such a way offers a valuable and efficient complement to experimental studies.

IWH Speaker Series

Using knowledge transfer principles in ergonomic tool development for firefighters and paramedics

Kathryn E. Sinden, McGill University

Developing workplace ergonomic solutions, such as physical demands analyses (PDAs), physical demand descriptions (PDDs) and physical employment screens, requires collaboration and mutual consensus among all workplace parties. Involving all stakeholders in the process can be challenging, particularly when there are potentially conflicting viewpoints. In this presentation, registered kinesiologist Dr. Kathryn Sinden discusses how using integrated knowledge translation, informed by the Knowledge-to-Action Framework, can be useful in developing a PDA/PDD for firefighters and a physical employment screen for paramedics.

IWH Speaker Series

The network secrets of great change agents

Tiziana Casciaro, University of Toronto

Change is hard, especially in a large organization. However, some leaders do succeed—often spectacularly—at transforming their workplaces. What makes them able to exert this sort of influence when the vast majority can’t? A team led by Dr. Tiziana Casciaro set out to gain that insight by focusing on organizations in which size, complexity, and tradition make it exceptionally difficult to achieve reform. In this plenary, she shares what she discovered were the predictors of change agents’ success.

IWH Speaker Series

Systematic review of the effectiveness of OHS regulatory enforcement

Emile Tompa, Institute for Work & Health

How effective are regulatory inspections and other forms of enforcement in improving health and safety at workplaces? In this plenary, Dr. Emile Tompa shares results from a systematic review guided by this question. He also discusses the research evidence on awareness campaigns, smoking bans, and inspections backed up by the threat of penalties.

IWH Speaker Series

A scoping review of Clinical Decision Support tools for managing disabling MSDs

Ivan Steenstra, Institute for Work & Health

Front-line employees in health care and workers’ compensation frequently make challenging decisions about the most appropriate treatments for injured workers to help facilitate return-to-work. Clinical Decision Support (CDS) tools are designed to inform these decisions based on individual worker characteristics. In this plenary, Dr. Ivan Steenstra outlines the existing literature on these tools and examines the extent to which research evidence supports their use.

IWH Speaker Series

Improving the effectiveness of joint health and safety committees (JHSCs)

Linn Holness, Centre for Research Expertise in Occupational Disease

An evidence-based assessment tool has been developed to help joint health and safety committees (JHSCs) establish improvement goals and ensure sustained effectiveness. In this plenary, Dr. Linn Holness shares the research behind the 21-item tool and discusses how this study, conducted in a health-care setting, could have application across Canadian workplaces.

IWH Speaker Series

An occupational hazard exposure index for economic sectors in Ontario

Cameron Mustard, Institute for Work & Health

Can a measure be created to indicate how the risk of work-related injury and illness differs from sector to sector? In this plenary, Dr. Cameron Mustard, senior scientist and president of the Institute for Work & Health, shares the research findings and research methods behind the development of an occupational hazard exposure index for 56 sectors in Ontario.