Return to work, accommodation and support

Published: Journal of Public Health, August 2025

An IWH study has found that Ontario health-care providers face a range of challenges when treating workers with a work-related injury or illness and helping them return to work—from communication issues with compensation boards to the complexities of working with multiple parties. The researchers also found that a telementoring program called ECHO Occupational Environmental Medicine helped providers overcome some of these challenges.

Published: July 2025

First responders commonly experience occupational injuries, particularly post-traumatic stress injuries (PTSIs), which encompass symptoms of anxiety-, mood- or trauma-related disorders. PTSI can negatively affect the lives of first responders, including reducing work performance; increasing absence at work; raising the likelihood of burnout, sleep difficulties, poorer relationships with others, feelings of hopelessness, self-harm and suicidal behaviors; and leading to higher risks of disability and early mortality. This summary is based on an Institute for Work & Health study that focused on organizational policies and practices in first responder organizations that can help prevent PTSI work disability.

Published: June 2025

Published: Journal of Occupational Rehabilitation, May 2025

Workers with a work-related physical injury that takes them off the job can have a wide range of mental health experiences, beyond diagnosable conditions. That’s according to an IWH study which also found that differences in workers’ mental health after an injury were linked to return-to-work outcomes. Those reporting both a mental health condition and the poorest wellbeing had longer, more expensive compensation claims.

Published: April 2025

Job disruptions are common among workers living with chronic physical and/or mental health conditions, an IWH study has found. The study investigated the effects of workplace supports had on four types of job disruptions.

Published: March 2025

Severe pain is the main factor associated with opioid use after a work-related injury, regardless of the employee’s return-to-work timeline, a recent study out of Canada suggests. Findings show that 35.6 per cent of the workers used opioids more than once in the past year. However, those who experienced severe post-injury pain were nearly three times more likely to use opioids than the participants who had mild or zero pain.

Published: Safety+Health, March 2025

An IWH study found that among a group of injured workers in Ontario, those who experienced severe pain were more likely to use opioids than those who had no or only mild pain—regardless of whether they felt they had to return to work too soon, or were offered work accommodations.

Published: February 2025

People who have previously experienced a work-related injury are more likely to experience opioid poisonings and other opioid-related harms than the general population. That’s according to research conducted by the Institute for Work & Health (IWH) and the Occupational Cancer Research Centre (OCRC), using data from 1.7 million Ontario workers who had an accepted lost-time workers’ compensation claim between 1983 and 2019.

Published: Rehab & Community Care Medicine , February 2025

Published: Occupational and Environmental Medicine, February 2025