What's new

Are immigrants more vulnerable to workplace hazards than Canadian-born workers? What can we do to promote the safe integration of newcomers into the labour market? How do workers with limited English proficiency navigate the workers’ compensation system after an injury? Studies on these research questions were recently presented at the 2017 Research & Policy Forum on Immigration, Work & Health at Toronto’s city hall. Those lectures are now available as slidecasts.

IWH’s OHS Vulnerability Measure defines vulnerability to work-related injuries and illnesses as a combination of hazard exposure and insufficient protection due to inadequate policies and practices, low awareness of occupational health and safety (OHS) risks and/or lack of empowerment. Now, thanks to the support of WorkSafeNB, the 27-item worker health and safety survey at the heart of the tool is available in French—as is a new video about what the tool does.

The economic burden of mesotheliomas and lung cancers due to work-related exposures to asbestos diagnosed during a one-year period is $2.35 billion in Canada. That’s according to an economic evaluation by IWH. The estimate, higher than previously reported, was recently published in an open-access article. A study update is available in At Work.

Benefit claims for mental illness are a challenge for income support program administrators. How to prove the illness and verify its duration are just some of the difficulties identified by Dr. Ashley McAllister in her study on policy design. McAllister, a post-doctoral fellow at Sweden’s Karolinksa Institute, recently shared her findings at a plenary hosted by IWH, where she was a visiting researcher. Read the highlights of that presentation in a new At Work article.

Save the date! Look back at the progress made in opening the world of work to people with disabilities and injured workers. Identify current challenges and opportunities and develop a vision and strategy for the future. On November 27-29, join advocates, employer and labour stakeholders, researchers and policy-makers at the National Conference on Disability and Work in Canada, to be held at the Canadian War Museum in Ottawa. This conference is hosted by the Centre for Research on Work Disability Policy (an IWH project), in collaboration with the Canadian Council on Rehabilitation and Work, the Ontario Network of Injured Workers Groups, and InclusionNL.

The familiar plight of foreign-trained professionals not getting hired in Canada is not exclusive to doctors, nurses and engineers. Researchers and analysts from abroad also face similar hurdles. That’s why IWH has teamed up with Access Alliance and other organizations to create a pilot program. It’s aimed at providing foreign-trained researchers and analysts a paid opportunity to network, find mentors and gain Canadian work experience.

A mandatory occupational health and safety (OHS) awareness training initiative in Ontario, introduced in July 2014, appeared to increase participation in training about health and safety rights and responsibilities. And workers who reported receiving the training were found to have higher levels of OHS awareness compared to workers who had not received training.

A safety climate audit tool for mining operations is now being piloted in Ontario. Developed as a result of Ontario’s Mining Health, Safety and Prevention Review, the tool is a product of collaboration among the Institute for Work & Health (IWH), Workplace Safety North (WSN) and the Ontario Mining Association. Read about what’s called the Internal Responsibility System Climate Assessment and Audit Tool (IRS CAAT), and the work that went into its development in the latest issue of At Work.

Strengthening rehabilitation services is becoming a key challenge to health systems around the world, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). In February, the global body released new guidelines encouraging countries to ramp up their rehabilitation services to ensure people with health conditions function at their best. The guidelines are evidence-based—and that is where IWH comes in. Institute Scientist Dr. Andrea Furlan led a team that provided the research evidence behind five of the nine recommendations in the new WHO guidelines.

Effective workplace programs to help injured and ill workers return to their jobs are multi-faceted. They offer some combination of health services, return-to-work (RTW) coordination and work modifications. That’s according to a recent systematic review update conducted by the Institute for Work & Health (IWH) and the Institute for Safety, Compensation and Recovery Research (ISCRR). It also finds work-related cognitive behavioural therapy improves RTW for workers with mental health conditions. Read the open access article or find out more in At Work.

Most health-care providers, when treating acute and visible injuries, find the workers’ compensation system and return-to-work process relatively straightforward. But when treating patients with gradual onset, invisible or complex conditions, the challenges can be many. A new study by the Institute for Work & Health (IWH) examines the challenges from the perspectives of health-care providers and case managers in four provinces. Dr. Agnieszka Kosny shared the findings at a recent plenary and in an At Work article, now online.

In the early 1990s, there was a growing recognition of the need for patient-reported outcome measures for musculoskeletal conditions and injuries affecting the upper limb—the arm, shoulder or hand. That was why a team at the Institute for Work & Health and the American Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons developed the DASH Outcome Measure. Twenty years later, the DASH is used across the world in more than 50 languages. Its impact is felt in both research and clinical settings. In this video, DASH developers talk about why they think it's stood the test of time.