February 2018

Conference on disability and work in Canada outlines many barriers to inclusion

Where does one begin when setting out to develop a national strategy for greater inclusion of people with disabilities in the Canadian labour market? At the Disability and Work in Canada conference held in Ottawa last November, embracing diversity was a first step. The conference, co-hosted by the Centre for Research on Work Disability Policy—a seven-year research initiative headquartered at the Institute for Work & Health (IWH)—brought together a broad range of stakeholders. The issues they identified were many.

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What does the research say about managing depression in the workplace?

By the year 2020, depression will be the second leading cause of disability worldwide. What programs can workplaces offer to help employees stay at work while experiencing symptoms, or return to work after a depression-related absence? Findings from a systematic review on this question were shared at an IWH Speaker Series presentation last month.

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Measuring the burden of cancer in Ontario

How many workers in Ontario develop cancer due to work exposure to the sun every year? What about exposure to diesel exhaust or crystalline silica? In an ambitious collaborative project, a team of researchers from across Canada has sorted through census records going back 40 years to estimate the number of people exposed to carcinogens at work. Dr. Paul Demers, director of the Occupational Cancer Research Centre and principal investigator on the team, recently shared his methods and findings at an IWH Speaker Series presentation.

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Celebrate RSI Day by helping us find out what works in MSD prevention

February 28 is Repetitive Strain Injuries (RSI) Awareness Day. What better way to mark the day than to contribute to research that will help us learn about current workplace strategies to prevent work-related musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs)? Take our survey, and tell us what MSD prevention practices you or your workplace are currently using, what is working and what is challenging. Your answers will help shape an easy-to-use free guide that details how to manage MSDs in the workplace, being developed by a team of researchers at IWH.

Complete the MSD prevention survey

CREOD develops new tools and protocols to detect airborne infections

Health-care workers may be exposed to infectious bioaerosols when tending to patients, putting them at risk of contracting the illnesses. Previously, access to the technical expertise and instruments needed to measure potentially infectious viral bioaerosols was limited. Now, a research team at the Centre for Research Expertise in Occupational Disease (CREOD) has developed a tool to detect these bioaerosols. As detailed in a CREOD Research Flash, the results may help health-care workplaces better understand the risks and plan more targeted preventive measures.

Read the Research Flash

CRE-MSD webinar offers scan of disability management options in Canadian workplaces

Learn about good practices for reducing work disability in an upcoming webinar by IWH Senior Scientist Dr. Emile Tompa and University of Waterloo’s Dr. Amin Yazdani. As part of their work on developing the Canadian Standard for Work Disability Prevention Management Systems, Tompa and Yazdani have conducted interviews with representatives of exemplary organizations, policy-makers, and program providers across Canada. They share findings of this environmental scan in a noon-hour webinar on February 23. And in a second webinar on March 2, the two are back to offer updates on the development of the standard. Both webinars are offered by the Centre of Researoch Expertise for the Prevention of Musculoskeletal Disorders (CRE-MSD). Both require registration.

Find out more

Uyen Vu
Communications Associate
613-979-7742
uvu@iwh.on.ca