Document directory

Recent immigrant workers are 1.6 times more likely than Canadian-born workers to experience occupational health and safety (OHS) vulnerability, defined as exposure to hazards without adequate protection to mitigate those hazards.

When it comes to workplace supports, people with chronic disease have similar needs, even at different ages and career stages. However, young people face unique challenges related to accessing workplace supports, including a lack of available workplace resources and difficulty overcoming preconceptions around youth and chronic conditions.

Women’s and men's stress levels are affected differently by psychosocial work exposures such as supervisor or co-worker support, job control, job demand and job insecurity.

This guide, based on a research collaboration led by the Institute for Work & Health, provides an overview of the process involved in modifying the curriculum of an existing occupational health and safety (OHS) training program in order to address gaps in essential skills among worker trainees.

This evidence-based guide is designed for anyone in the workplace who supports workers with depression as they cope with their symptoms while working, or when they are returning to work following an episode of depression.

An IWH study estimating the lifetime cost of newly diagnosed cases of mesothelioma and lung cancer due to work-related asbestos exposures in a single year garnered much media and public interest, and was cited by Canadian government in its analysis of the impact of its regulation banning asbestos.

This report details the findings of an Institute for Work & Health study on employment preparation process of newcomers in Ontario, with the aim of determining key training and resource needs and opportunities related to safely integrating recent immigrants and refugees into the labour market.

This report details the findings of an Institute for Work & Health study that looked at acute-care hospitals in Ontario and how they implemented legislated violence prevention initiatives, to what effect, and the challenges they faced along the way.

Organizations working with recent immigrants are incorporating parts of the Institute's toolkit for teaching newcomers about workplace health and safety into their programming. Organizations in Ontario, Alberta, Northwest Territories and Nunavut, and even as far away as Australia, say the resource is just what they were looking for.

An Ontario health and safety association, Workplace Safety and Prevention Services, turned to the Institute's model of breakthrough change to inform its approach to small business, especially the concept of finding the "knowledge transformation leader" within a small business to advocate for occupational health and safety change.

When the World Health Organization released its evidence-based guideline to help primarily low- and middle-income countries develop, extend equitably deliver rehabilitation services, it relied on evidence synthesized by an IWH research team for five of the guideline's nine recommendations.

When Ontario legislated in 1997 that employers and workers cooperate in the early and safe return to work of injured workers, the workplace parties were looking for guidance. They found it in the Institute for Work & Health's evidence-based Seven "Principles" for Successful Return to Work, one of the most popular and widely used guides developed by the Institute.

This 2017 presentation outlines the Institute's theory and practice of knowledge transfer and exchange. It's an integrated approach, featuring stakeholder engagement and communications functions under one umbrella within the organization.

This two-page summary shares the highlights of an Institute for Work & Health study that looked at acute-care hospitals in Ontario and how they implemented legislated violence prevention initiatives, to what effect, and the challenges they faced along the way.

Workers who predominantly stand on the job are at greater risk of heart disease than workers who predominantly sit. Workplace prevention efforts should target excessive standing, as well as excessive sitting, to protect the cardiovascular health of workers.

Supporting Change in Workplaces: The Institute for Work & Health's 2016 Annual Report

Workers with disabilities are more likely to be exposed to hazards at work than other workers, and are more likely to experience vulnerability due to inadequate measures to mitigate those hazards.

This report provides a synthesis of the relevant research-based evidence on managing depression for the adult working population of Manitoba. The synthesis is based on an international search of the literature, and the findings were then contexualized for Manitoba based on an approach developed by the Institute for Work & Health and Memorial University's SafetyNet Centre for Occupational Health and Safety Research.

This handbook, the product of a research collaboration between the Institute for Work & Health and Memorial University’s SafetyNet Centre for Occupational Health and Safety Research, can be used by occupational health, safety and disability prevention stakeholders seeking to improve policy and/or practice by contextualizing the results of a research synthesis (e.g. a systematic review) to their particular situation (e.g. particular jurisdiction, sector or workplace).

This report synthesizes the evidence from a systematic review on the effectiveness of workplace-based return-to-work interventions and updates the Institute's 2004 systematic review on the same subject. This update brings in evidence published since 2004, and expands upon the original systematic review by including work absences due not only to musculoskeletal disorders, but also to mental health and pain-related conditions.

IWH, in collaboration with Workplace Safety North, piloted a workplace questionnaire to measure perceptions of practices related to the internal responsibility system in Ontario's mining sector. This February 2017 presentation provides an overview of the development of the instrument, called the Internal Responsibility System Climate Assessment and Audit Tool (IRS CAAT), and the psychometric analysis of that instrument at four mining operations.

This guide to IWH resources points occupational health and safety, disablity management and rehabilitation practitioners to tools, guides and other information products from IWH that can help ensure evidence-based information is incorporated into policies and practices to prevent work injury, illness and disability.

This guide to IWH resources points post-secondary students and instructors in occupational health and safety, disability management and/or work injury rehablitation to tools, guides and other information products from IWH that can help ensure evidence-based information is incorporated into research projects, essays, presentations, lessons and lectures.

This guide to IWH resources points ergonomists, kinesiologists and other workplace musculoskeletal disorder (MSD) prevention specialists to tools, guides and information products from IWH that can help ensure evidence-based information is incorporated into MSD prevention policies and practices.

This guide provides simple explanations of over 35 common research terms used in the health and social sciences to help users of research better understand what scientists mean when they report their findings.

The differing levels of work activity limitations among women and men are explained by the different chronic conditions they are likely to have and the different physical demands they are likely to face on the job.

Health-care providers play an important role in the return to work of injured workers, yet research suggests they sometimes struggle with this responsibility. This executive summary provides an overview of the findings of a study on health-care providers' experiences in return to work and in working with workers' compensation systems.

Health-care providers play an important role in the return to work of injured workers, yet research suggests they sometimes struggle with this responsibility. This report shares the findings of a study on health-care providers' experiences in return to work and in working with workers' compensation systems. It also suggests practices and policies that may help clarify the role of health-care providers and make workers’ compensation systems easier to navigate for all stakeholders.

Ten years after it took part in a participatory ergonomics study, Kitchener-Wilmot Hydro's change team was still going strong.

The IWH Organizational Performance Metric (IWH-OPM) helps WorksafeBC act on a review recommendation to assess safety culture in the province's workplaces.

Despite a strong OHS record, construction and facilities management company sees benefit of learning more through use of IWH's OHS Vulnerability Measure.

Four factors that predict how long injured workers will remain off work are incorporated into new case management model at Ontario's Workplace Safety and Insurance Board.

This Issue Briefing provides highlights of IWH's body of evidence on "vulnerable" workers, tracking how our research has evolved from vulnerability being associated with those who are new to a job to those who are exposed to hazards with inadequate awareness, protective policies and/or empowerment.

Upper extremity musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs) include painful conditions and injuries of the muscles, tendons, joints and nerves that affect the neck, shoulders, elbows, wrists and hands. This update of a previous systematic review sets out to find occupational health and safety (OHS) interventions that effectively prevent and manage upper extremity MSDs.

A new way of thinking about "vulnerable workers" makes inroads with Ontario's Ministry of Labour and its partners.

Twenty Five Years of Making a Difference: The Institute for Work & Health's 2015 Annual Report

This June 2016 presentation provides an early look at the results of an economic burden study on the costs to Canadian society of new cases of lung cancers and mesothelioma attributable to occupational asbestos exposures in a particular year.

In 2011, an IWH Issue Briefing summed up research on the adequacy of earnings replacement benefits for injured workers with permanent impairments in Ontario and B.C. This update looks at more recent cohorts, after major changes in Ontario’s workers’ compensation legislation.

Workplaces that jointly manage operations and occupational health and safety (OHS) perform well at both, and no worse than workplaces that focus on only one. There’s no evidence that success in operations requires a trade-off with safety.

This tool assesses the extent to which a worker may be vulnerable to occupational health and safety (OHS) risks at work in four areas: hazard exposure; workplace policies and procedures; worker awareness of hazards and OHS rights and responsibilities; and worker empowerment to participate in injury and illness prevention.

The Ontario Leading Indicators Project (OLIP) was a study conducted by the Institute for Work & Health from 2011-2014 that included a survey made up of five different leading indicator measures. This benchmarking table allows organizations to compare their scores with organizations in Ontario's construction, transportation or electrical & utilities sectors.

Older men and women with work-related injuries remain off work on benefits longer than other workers, and this longer time off work is not explained by the type or severity of their injuries.