Past events

4 May 2010

IWH Speaker Series

The impact of temporary employment and job tenure on sickness absence

Heather Scott-Marshall, Institute for Work & Health; Emile Tompa, Institute for Work & Health

Previous studies have suggested that temporary employment and job tenure are associated with work-related health risk exposures and the ability to take a sickness absence, but these studies have not considered the nature of the employment contract in a longitudinal framework. This study investigates the impact of temporary employment on work-related and all-cause sickness absences of one week or more with a focus on how these outcomes are moderated by factors related to social protection (job tenure, union membership and firm size).

27 Apr 2010

IWH Speaker Series

Trying to get back: The challenges faced by registered nurses returning to work

Laurie Clune, Institute for Work & Health

Nursing is a profession that is at high risk for injuries. The successful return of nurses to their pre-injury role is essential given the global nursing shortage. This study sought to describe the return-to-work processes in southern Ontario hospitals through the experiences of injured registered nurses (IRN). The purpose of the study is to describe with a sample IRNs and others involved in hospital injury management how return to work happens in hospitals. This research employed institutional ethnography as the approach to examine the topic. Participants in this study included a convenience sample of six IRNs and 22 others involved in hospital injury management practices. Most IRNs interviewed in this study were unable to return to work. Hospitals faced challenges in finding accommodated work for IRNs given organizational commitments to patient safety and fiscal efficiency. The findings afford new insights and can inform hospital injury management practices used with registered nurses.

6 Apr 2010

IWH Speaker Series

“It’s like we’re forcing them to do it” Vocational retraining challenges facing providers and workers in Ontario’s Labour-Market Re-Entry program

Ellen MacEachen, Institute for Work & Health

Although there have been many studies of return to work, we know little about the situation of injured workers who cannot return to their old workplace and go through a workers’ compensation vocational retraining program. This presentation shows the results of a qualitative study that examined how vocational retraining works in practice in Ontario’s Labour Market Re-Entry (LMR) program in order to provide some understanding of this neglected dimension of return to work.

9 Mar 2010

IWH Speaker Series

A systematic review of the effectiveness of training and education for the protection of workers

Lynda Robson, Institute for Work & Health

Occupational health and safety (OHS) training is widely acknowledged as an important means of addressing the risks associated with occupational hazards, but we are often not sure how effective training is. This presentation will report on a systematic literature review of recent, high quality research studies about the effectiveness of training.

23 Feb 2010

IWH Speaker Series

Return-to-work coordination, the what, when, how, where and by whom: Findings from the Intervention Mapping Project

Carlo Ammendolia, Institute for Work & Health

In Ontario, as in other jurisdictions, return to work (RTW) and disability prevention have become high priorities for employers and insurers given the increasing duration of lost-time claims in recent years. Research evidence suggests that RTW coordination may be helpful in improving RTW. However, details on how to successfully implement a RTW program based on RTW coordination are lacking. Intervention mapping is a methodology that is used to develop and implement complex interventions or programs. We used this approach to develop a RTW program based on RTW coordination that is tailored to the Ontario setting. In this plenary, the methodology used and the findings will be described.

9 Feb 2010

IWH Speaker Series

The role of patients' beliefs in predicting return to work following operatively managed tibial fracture

Jason Busse, Institute for Work & Health

What role do patients’ beliefs play in their likelihood of recovery from severe physical trauma? Can these beliefs be measured in order to help predict long-term outcomes? Dr. Jason Busse, an IWH scientist, will present findings from a study that explored these questions. He and his research team developed and validated an instrument designed to capture the impact of patients’ beliefs on functional recovery from injury. The instrument, called the somatic preoccupation and coping (SPOC) questionnaire, was administered to 359 patients who had undergone operations for tibial shaft fractures. The relationship between their SPOC scores and functional outcomes one year later were then measured.

2 Feb 2010

IWH Speaker Series

An interdisciplinary and participatory approach to prevention

Alec Farquhar, Occupational Health Clinics for Ontario Workers Inc.

Over its 20 year history, the Occupational Health Clinics for Ontario Workers (OHCOW) has a rich experience in linking efforts to detect and prevent occupational injury and disease. Much has been learned about the best ways for an interdisciplinary clinical team to support participatory prevention interventions in the workplace. This presentation will review that history and the lessons learned for the future.

12 Jan 2010

IWH Speaker Series

Forecasting and modelling worker injury rates in Ontario

Ian Moore, Institute for Work & Health

Ian Moore, a post-doctoral fellow at IWH, will discuss a study that investigated three forecasting models to assess which one works best with time-series data on workers’ compensation lost-time, no-lost-time and total claim rates.

9 Dec 2009

IWH Speaker Series

How the front-line "works" at Ontario's WSIB

Joan Eakin, University of Toronto

This presentation will report on an ethnographic study of front-line service work in Ontario's Workplace Safety and Insurance Board (WSIB), specifically the work of adjudicators, nurse case managers and customer service representatives servicing small businesses. The aim of the study was to understand and explain, from a sociological perspective and in relation to institutional context, the nature, logic and social relations of work at the front lines. The presentation will reflect on the relevance and implications of these findings for key stakeholders in the compensation system: injured/ill workers, employers, the WSIB and the OHS system as a whole.

8 Dec 2009

IWH Speaker Series

Income dynamics and adult mortality in Canada and the United States

Jacob Etches, Institute for Work & Health

Income level is a well-known risk factor for mortality among working-aged adults. Job loss and unemployment are also often correlated with increased risk of death. Very little research has investigated income drops, a plausible mediator of a causal effect of unemployment on health, and its association with mortality. In this presentation, Institute for Work & Health Research Associate Jacob Etches will discuss a study that is using tax and survey data to investigate the effect of income level and income drops in Canada and the United States, as well as the induction times for the effects of income level and income drops. The difficulty of establishing the direction of causality for correlations between these exposures and mortality will also be discussed.

1 Dec 2009

IWH Speaker Series

Measuring what matters: Conceptualizing return to work through concept mapping

Rhysa Tagen Leyshon, University of Western Ontario

The evaluation and comparison of return-to-work (RTW) programs and interventions is difficult because no standard, valid outcome measure exists. RTW outcomes are typically measured using administratively based scales that fail to take the perspectives of workers and other stakeholders into consideration. As a first step in developing any outcome measure, the outcomes of interest and importance to key stakeholders need to be established. In this presentation, Rhysa Tagen Leyshon of the Graduate Program in Health and Rehabilitation at the University of Western Ontario, will discuss a study that set out to generate a trusted and credible conceptual framework of successful RTW reflecting the values of all stakeholders equally and fairly.

25 Nov 2009

Alf Nachemson Memorial Lecture

No small matter: Unpacking the problem of health and safety in small workplaces

Joan Eakin, University of Toronto

Most workers in Canada and internationally are employed in small and medium-sized enterprises. Ensuring health and safety in such workplaces presents enduring and unresolved challenges to occupational health systems. Dr. Eakin’s research has examined how working conditions and health-related practices in small workplaces are shaped by their distinct features and social relations, and by the regulatory and service environment that governs them. Drawing on a series of her studies, Dr. Eakin will “unpack” some prevailing assumptions and approaches to prevention, return to work and service provision to this sector, and suggest how they might be reframed. She will also describe how the injured worker community and Ontario’s Workplace Safety and Insurance Board have used this body of research.

24 Nov 2009

IWH Speaker Series

The problem of long-duration claims: What is driving increases in duration and locked-in claims?

Sheilah Hogg-Johnson, Institute for Work & Health

Over the last decade in Ontario, the number of total days per lost-time claim compensated by the Workplace Safety and Insurance Board (WSIB) has increased dramatically, as has the rate of claims remaining active and open. In other words, there has been an increase in claim duration. The trend is in contrast to a declining claim rate experienced over much of the 1990s. Why has there been this increase in the persistence of lost-time claims? Is it due to WSIB policy changes in January 1998 under Bill 99? Could changes in worker demographics, injury characteristics or workplace characteristics account for the increase? IWH Senior Scientist Dr. Sheilah Hogg-Johnson is conducting research to find out. In this presentation, she will discuss this research and what she has found so far.

17 Nov 2009

IWH Speaker Series

Job quality: What is it, why does it matter, and how can it be improved?

Graham Lowe, The Graham Lowe Group

This presentation examines the diverse theories, concepts and practices that address the quality of jobs, work environments and individuals’ work experiences. On this broad canvas, we can identify points of convergence around key sets of determinants and outcomes. However, a common conceptual vocabulary is lacking, which impedes cross-fertilization across disciplines and between researchers and practitioners. The most promising opportunity for an integrated approach is around the connection between work environments, employee well-being and organizational performance. Practitioners and policy-makers need a basic model explaining these complex dynamics. By taking up this challenge, researchers would help ensure that future decisions to improve job quality are informed by evidence.

10 Nov 2009

IWH Speaker Series

Coordinating return-to-work stakeholders in a changing welfare system

Christian Stahl, National Centre for Work and Rehabilitation, Linköping University, Sweden

Research on disability prevention and return to work (RTW) over the last decades has concluded that involving all relevant stakeholders in rehabilitation and disability prevention is important, and that the responsibilities of the stakeholders need to be coordinated. The coordination of RTW stakeholders is promoted by international institutions such as the European Union, and cooperative initiatives have been put into practice in several countries. In the Scandinavian countries, for instance, stakeholder cooperation in rehabilitation and RTW has been the subject of legislation and institutional reforms. Since the 1990s, Sweden has been creating structures for stakeholder cooperation. A more recent initiative is the creation of Coordination Associations (CAs), made up of four central stakeholders in the Swedish social security system: the Social Insurance Agency, the Public Employment Service, municipal social services and primary health care. In this presentation, Christian Stahl of Sweden's National Centre for Work and Rehabilitation will discuss the Coordination Associations, how people employed by the authorities and in health care perceive cooperative work and how recent policy changes affect their practice, as well as recent policy changes from an internationally comparative perspective.

4 Nov 2009

IWH Speaker Series

Occupational exposures and cancer risk

Aaron Blair, Occupational Cancer Research Centre

Studies of exposures in the workplace have made major contributions to our understanding of human carcinogenesis. In the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) Monographs on the Evaluation of Carcinogenic Risks to Humans, occupational exposures account for 31 per cent of the factors classified with "sufficient" evidence for human carcinogenicity, for 42 per cent of those listed as "probable" human carcinogens, and 42 per cent of those listed as "possible" human carcinogens. Given the prominent role played by occupational exposures in our understanding of human carcinogenesis, it is worthwhile to take stock of where we are regarding studies of occupational cancer. In this presentation, Dr. Aaron Blair will look at how successful research has been in reducing the burden of cancer, and what we should be doing in the future.

20 Oct 2009

IWH Speaker Series

What does it mean to be "on disability" in Canada?

John Stapleton, Metcalf Foundation Fellow

What understanding do most Canadians have of disability benefits, and why is it so difficult to have a national discussion about a comprehensive disability benefit program? This presentation will look at the various types of disability income and service programs we have in Canada and why they are so hard to reform.

6 Oct 2009

IWH Speaker Series

Making a difference in MSD prevention

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

Despite worldwide attention, work-related musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs) remain a substantial concern at work, and result in considerable personal and societal burden. Information from a recent survey indicates that a minority of workplaces are taking action. Identifying hazards and performing risk assessments are key steps in workplace prevention activities. Do workplaces have the tools and training to do this? In order to then perform intense MSD prevention activities, interventions need to address important risk factors for a large proportion of exposed workers. The presentation explores these challenges.

15 Sep 2009

IWH Speaker Series

Bridging the safety gap for vulnerable young workers using youth employment centres

Curtis Breslin, Institute for Work & Health; Matt Wood, Ontario Association of Youth Employment Centres; Cameron Mustard, Institute for Work & Health

Young people aged 16 to 24 years who are out of school (and especially those with less than a high school diploma) are at a particularly elevated risk of work injury. To determine the optimal way to improve occupational health and safety (OHS) for this “high risk” subgroup, the Institute for Work & Health collaborated with the Ontario Association of Youth Employment Centres (OEYAC) to conduct an online survey through youth employment centres across Ontario. This plenary will outline the main findings of this survey and discuss recommendations for employers and policy-makers in Ontario