What's new

A group of workers in a well-lit office; the logo for VRAIE/IDEA is on the top left corner
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Sign up now: Inclusive Design for Employment Access (IDEA) launch event

On Thursday, May 18, the Inclusive Design for Employment Access (IDEA) social innovation laboratory is hosting a launch event. This partnered, knowledge-to-practice initiative is focused on building employers’ capacity to hire, promote and retain persons with disabilities, and to create accessible and inclusive workplaces.

Text reads: At the next IWH Speaker Series presentation... Persistent pain, its role in work absence, health and employment after a work injury Dr. Kathleen Dobson November 15, 2022, 11:00a.m. to noon www.iwh.on.ca Tinted background shows man wincing in pain as he holds his shoulder
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IWH Speaker Series webinar explores persistent pain after work injury

How common is it for injured workers to continue experiencing pain after a work injury? In the next IWH Speaker Series, on November 15, Dr. Kathleen Dobson shares findings from a study conducted with workers’ compensation claimants in Ontario.

Excellence written on road way
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WSIB Health & Safety Excellence Program makes use of IWH safety culture measure

A version of the IWH-Organizational Performance Metric (IWH-OPM) is used by Ontario’s Workplace Safety and Insurance Board (WSIB) to let workplaces in its Health and Safety Excellence Program measure their safety culture against a benchmark. The measure also allows the compensation agency to track trends in safety culture over time among participating organizations.

A blurry image of a hospital waiting room
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IWH links ER and workers’ comp claims data, finds important patterns in under-reporting

Over a third of work-related injuries and illnesses treated in Ontario hospital emergency rooms (ERs) don’t get reported as Workplace Safety and Insurance Board (WSIB) claims. That’s according to a recent Institute for Work & Health (IWH) data linkage study that found notable patterns in work-related injury reporting and under-reporting—including a change in reporting levels following the 2008/09 global financial crisis.

A doctor speaks to a patient, who's out of frame
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Registration now open for Spring 2022 session of Project ECHO OEM

Are you an Ontario primary health-care provider who treats or supports patients with injuries and illnesses that affect their ability to work? Project ECHO OEM is a telementoring program on occupational and environmental medicine set up just for you. Learn about best practices to better support patients in recovery and return to work or stay at work. Sessions are held via videoconference each Friday from April 22 to July 15, 2022. Registration is ongoing.

Fracking rig workers in BC climb tower
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IWH Speaker Series presentation: the nature and extent of claim suppression in B.C.

A new IWH Speaker Series season is around the corner. To start off the season on Tuesday, September 28, presenters Dr. Ron Saunders, an adjunct scientist at IWH, and John O’Grady, a partner at Prism Economics and Analysis, share their research estimating the nature and extent of claim suppression in British Columbia. Find out more on the events page.

An out-of-frame doctor talks to someone on a laptop screen
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IWH set to launch telementoring project on occupational medicine for health professionals

Frontline health-care providers play an important role in helping people return to work following a work-related injury or illness. But family doctors and other frontline practitioners may lack familiarity with the workers’ compensation system and return-to-work processes. A new telementoring project is being launched in Ontario to address this skills gap. Project ECHO on Occupational and Environmental Medicine, to be hosted by the Institute for Work & Health (IWH), will launch in the fall. It will be the first such project on occupational medicine, using the innovative hub-and-spoke health-care mentoring model called ECHO—short for Extension for Community Healthcare Outcomes—that’s now used around the world.

View from the back of a man in a suit in an urban street
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Unemployment benefits linked to lower mortality rates over 10 years: IWH study

We know that being out of work puts people at risk of short- and long-term health consequences—including higher death rates. A new Institute for Work & Health study looks at whether—and how much—having income support during unemployment can lessen the negative impact.

Silhouettes of cranberries harvest workers in the light of a sunrise
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Claim suppression study in B.C. finds half of work-related injuries, illnesses not reported  

About half of British Columbia workers who have a lost-time work injury or illness don’t report the injury or illness to WorkSafeBC. This is according to a recent study on claim suppression commissioned by WorkSafeBC and conducted by the Institute for Work & Health (IWH) and Prism Economics and Analysis. It found the main reasons for not reporting are workers not knowing they are entitled to compensation or how to apply, and thinking it’s not worth their time to make a claim. As detailed in a policy briefing, the study also found an estimated four to 13 per cent of people with work-related injuries in B.C. experience claim suppression—i.e. pressure or inducement from an employer not to make a claim.

A line drawing of a male figure slumped in a chair, head in hand
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How much does depression set Canadian workers back in earnings?

Does depression hurt the earning potential of affected workers in Canada and, if so, how much? That was what IWH Research Associate Kathleen Dobson set out to find. Using an innovative technique, she calculated the average drop in workers’ earnings in the first year after workers experienced a depressive episode—and how much ground they continued to lose over 10 years.