Trusted research, with reach and impact
The Institute for Work & Health (IWH) is an independent, multidisciplinary, not-for-profit research organization located in Ontario, Canada. IWH conducts and mobilizes research that supports policy-makers, employers and workers in creating healthy, safe and inclusive work environments.
Latest news & findings
Parental job quality linked to children’s mental health, school performance
Children whose parents work low-quality, precarious jobs are more likely to experience mental health problems and perform poorly at school. That’s according to a pair of studies, co-led by the Institute for Work & Health (IWH), that drew on two large-scale surveys of children and parents from Ontario and across Canada.
Syme research training award recipients announced
IWH is pleased to announce the 2025/2026 S. Leonard Syme Research Training Award recipients. They are: Erene Stergiopoulos, Travis Van Belle, Rebecca Cairns and Emily Howe. Established in 2002, the awards are designed to support early-career researchers at the master's or doctoral level studying work and health issues.
IWH knowledge transfer and exchange approach a ‘perfect fit’ for episodic disabilities project
Researchers and knowledge transfer and exchange (KTE) staff at the Institute for Work & Health (IWH) put a lot of focus on how to tap into partner expertise to refine research goals and facilitate the sharing and uptake of research findings. What does that look like in practice? This article illustrates how a seven-year partnership project used IWH’s approach to KTE to develop and share usable outputs from the research findings.
IWH Speaker Series: The long-term work experiences of Canadians with mental health conditions
People living with a mental health condition face a lower likelihood of employment than those without such conditions. But we know little about the range of individual employment experiences, and whether they change over time. On September 23, the IWH Speaker Series returns as Dr. Kathleen Dobson draws on 25 years of linked survey and tax data to examine the long-term employment trajectories of Canadians living with mental health conditions.
Dates announced for IWH systematic review workshop
IWH's systematic review workshop will be held from October 30 to 31, 2025, in-person in Toronto. Attendees will learn how to plan, conduct and communicate the results of a systematic review. If you are a clinician, clinical trainee, academic or researcher with an interest in the methodology of systematic reviews, register at the link below by October 15 to attend.
IWH Speaker Series
Learn directly from IWH researchers themselves about their latest findings in health, safety and disability prevention. Coming up next:
Beyond employment rates: The long-term work experiences of Canadians with mental health conditions
Presented by Kathleen Dobson.
Date: Tuesday, September 23, 2025, 11:00AM EST
Explore the site
Tools and guides
Integrate evidence-based policies and practices into your occupational health and safety, return-to-work and rehabilitation programs. IWH has created a number of tools and guides based on our research findings that can help improve program outcomes.
Impact case studies
Find out how IWH research is making a difference. Read our impact case studies, in which policy-makers, workplaces and other stakeholders in health, safety and disability prevention tell how IWH research helped improve their policies, programs and practices.
Research summaries
Whether it’s a policy briefing, a systematic review summary or the highlights of a specific research project, we’ve compiled a number of plain-language summaries to help you understand the research we’re doing, what we have found, and how we found it.