The Ontario Life After Workplace Injury Study (OLAWIS) is looking at the long-term health and labour market outcomes of workers disabled by work injury or illness after they are no longer receiving benefits or services from the work disability insurance authority (i.e. Workplace Safety and Insurance Board). As part of this study, workers disabled by a work-related injury or illness were recruited from a sample of disability benefit claimants, with over-sampling of claimants with longer benefit durations.
Over 1,130 eligible claimants were interviewed at 18 months post-injury. Besides their sociodemographic characteristics, these claimants were asked about return-to-work and work status, income, physical and mental health, case manager and health-care provider interactions, and employer accommodations supporting return-to-work. (Interviews are to be conducted again at 36 months post-injury.) In this presentation, Dr. Cameron Mustard shares what the researchers have learned so far about this group of injured workers.
