Past events

28 Nov 2017

IWH Speaker Series

Addressing essential skills gaps in an OHS training program: a pilot study

Ron Saunders, Institute for Work & Health; Siobhan Cardoso, Institute for Work & Health; Morgane Le Pouésard, Institute for Work & Health

Can an occupational health and safety (OHS) training program be improved by modifying it to address gaps in essential skills? In a recent study, a research team led by Dr. Ron Saunders modified a hoisting and rigging training program offered by the LIUNA Local 506 training centre. The changes were made to address trainees’ skills gaps in numeracy and document use that were related to the job. In this plenary, the team share findings regarding the effect of modifying the curriculum on trainee learning and discuss suggestions for improving training efforts within the construction sector.

21 Nov 2017

IWH Speaker Series

Hand-arm vibration syndrome: a common but under-recognized problem

Ron House, Li Ka Shing Knowledge Institute, St. Michael's Hospital

Hand-arm vibration syndrome (HAVS) is a common occupational disease, which in advanced cases may be associated with significant upper extremity disability and reduced quality of life. However, HAVS is under-recognized and under-reported in Ontario and other Canadian provinces. Moreover, there is currently no legislation in Ontario for hand-arm vibration exposure. In this plenary, Dr. Ron House shares his HAVS research at St. Michael's Hospital and the Centre for Research Expertise in Occupational Disease (CREOD). He describes HAVS and its components, outlines its clinical assessment and management, and reviews the legislation for hand-arm vibration exposure and compensation experience for HAVS in Canada. He also highlights recent efforts to raise awareness of HAVS and increase focus on preventing this occupational exposure.

7 Nov 2017

IWH Speaker Series

Do workplace facilities and health promotion programs help workers be physically active?

Aviroop Biswas, Institute for Work & Health

Despite the known health benefits of regular physical activity, over half of adults fail to meet physical activity recommendations of at least 150 minutes of moderate-intensity physical activity a week. Recognizing that working-aged adults typically spend a third of their day at work, many workplaces offer wellness programs and facilities that support physical activity near or at work. In this plenary, Dr. Avi Biswas shares the results of a study that drew from a national survey of Canadians to examine the relationship between access to such facilities and wellness programs and the leisure time physical activity of workers.

31 Oct 2017

IWH Speaker Series

Safe employment integration of recent immigrants and refugees

Agnieszka Kosny, Institute for Work & Health; Basak Yanar, Institute for Work & Health; Dina Al-Khooly, Institute for Work & Health

Settlement and integration involve helping recent immigrants and refugees find work and become economically solvent. Many newcomers end up in survival jobs that expose them to hazards and are precarious and physically demanding. In this plenary, presenters Dr. Agnieszka Kosny, Dr. Basak Yanar and Dina Al-khooly summarize a recent study investigating how newcomers come to understand their rights and where there are gaps in resources and training.

17 Oct 2017

IWH Speaker Series

The role of Ontario Ministry of Labour (MOL) ergonomists

Brian McInnes, Ontario Ministry of Labour (MOL)

During Global Ergonomics Month, get the inside scoop on what Ontario Ministry of Labour (MOL) ergonomists do. Brian McInnes, provincial ergonomist at MOL, walks the audience through a day in the life of MOL ergonomists. He discusses the types of ergonomics analyses they perform, the different components of their ergonomics-related field visits, and the options they have for enforcement. A few case studies are shared.

13 Jun 2017

IWH Speaker Series

Evaluation of a safe resident handling program in U.S. nursing homes

Alicia Kurowski, University of Massachusetts Lowell

How effective are safe resident handling programs? In a 10-year research project, a team at the Center for Promotion of Health in the New England Workplace (CPH-NEW) set out to measure the impact of one such program that was implemented across 200 nursing home centres. In this plenary, project manager Alicia Kurowski shares the team’s findings on outcomes such as ergonomic exposures, self-reported back pain, injury rates, return-to-work outcomes and return on investment.

30 May 2017

IWH Speaker Series

Designing disability income support policy for mental illness

Ashley McAllister, Karolinska Institute

The features of mental illnesses pose challenges when designing disability income support (DIS) programs, yet there is limited evidence about the process. In this plenary, Dr. Ashley McAllister shares the results of a study in Australia and Ontario, which interviewed policy designers of DIS programs about the challenges related to mental illnesses. She outlines five main challenges and considers the ramifications of ignoring them—including distrust among policy designers of physicians' evidence to support DIS applications.

16 May 2017

IWH Speaker Series

Understanding effective worker health and safety representation

The right of worker representation has been a central tenet of occupational health and safety for over 40 years. While evidence shows that it improves health and safety at work, few attempts have been made to show how. In this plenary, a team of academics and labour representatives known as LOARC (short for Labour/OHCOW/Academic Research Collaboration) share their work examining what worker representatives actually do to achieve change. How much does it matter whether worker representatives adopt a more legal/technical approach or a more knowledge activist approach? Findings on effective worker health and safety representation styles are discussed.

2 May 2017

IWH Speaker Series

The biopsychosocial model: Time for a new back pain revolution?

Maurits Van Tulder, VU University Amsterdam

The management of low-back pain has changed from a passive approach calling for bed rest, traction and massage to a more active approach, one focused on staying active, exercise and multidisclipnary rehabilitation. This is in line with the change from a biomedical to a biopsychosocial model for understanding low-back pain over the last 20 years. However, the burden of low-back pain is still high, and the evidence for the biopsychosocial approach is still small. In this plenary, Dr. Maurits Van Tulder discusses the need for a new revolution in low-back pain research and the obligation researchers have to contribute to improving clinical practice.

18 Apr 2017

IWH Speaker Series

New World Health Organization (WHO) guidelines on rehabilitation in health systems

Andrea Furlan, Institute for Work & Health

In February of this year, the World Health Organization (WHO) released a report titled Rehabilitation in health systems, which includes nine recommendations to improve rehabilitation services around the world. The Institute for Work & Health (IWH) played a key role in the development of these recommendations, being one of three research organizations contracted by WHO to canvas the evidence on the best ways to strengthen and expand the availability of quality rehabilitation services. While the report primarily targets low- and middle-income countries, as noted by Dr. Andrea Furlan, lead researcher of the IWH evidence-gathering team contracted by WHO, “the recommendations resonate in Canada as well, given that rehabilitation plays an important role in keeping people in an aging population independent for longer, and helping people with chronic and acute injuries participate in school and work.” At this plenary, Dr. Furlan and Emma Irvin (also on the IWH research team) discuss the WHO’s recommendations for improving rehabilitation services globally, as well as the evidence behind them.

11 Apr 2017

IWH Speaker Series

Evaluating the impact of mandatory awareness training in Ontario

Peter Smith, Institute for Work & Health

In this presentation, Dr. Peter Smith shares the results of a study that examined differences in the level of self-reported occupational health and safety (OHS) awareness and empowerment among employed workers in Ontario before and after the introduction of the mandatory OHS training. He also discusses the implications of the results for future province-wide initiatives focusing on the primary prevention of work-related injuries and illnesses.

4 Apr 2017

IWH Speaker Series

Doctors and workers’ compensation: how system design shapes doctors’ roles

Katherine Lippel, University of Ottawa

How are the roles of doctors in the workers’ compensation system different in Quebec and Ontario? In this plenary, Professor Katherine Lippel shares findings from a qualitative and comparative regulatory study, conducted in both provinces, to examine the impact of regulatory contexts on the roles and practices of doctors and other players in the system.

28 Feb 2017

IWH Speaker Series

Have we learned enough for workplace Parkinson's disease prevention?

Anne Harris, Syme Fellow, Institute for Work & Health; Ryerson University

We currently don't fully understand why some people develop Parkinson's disease as they age while others do not. Since genetic inheritance accounts for a very small proportion of cases, researchers have been interested in environmental causes, including workplace exposures. In this plenary, epidemiologist Dr. Anne Harris talks about the evidence for or against several candidate risk factors, including pesticides, head injury, and whole body vibration.

7 Feb 2017

IWH Speaker Series

Health-care providers and their role in return to work

Agnieszka Kosny, Institute for Work & Health

Research around the world has shown that health-care providers have a key role in the return-to-work (RTW) process. However, pressure on consultation time, administrative challenges and limited knowledge about a patient’s workplace can thwart meaningful engagement. In a two-year study conducted in four Canadian provinces, Dr. Agnieszka Kosny focused on the experiences of health-care providers within the workers’ compensation system and their role in the RTW process. She shares her findings in this plenary.

22 Nov 2016

IWH Speaker Series

Life course concepts in the work experiences of people with arthritis

Arif Jetha, Institute for Work & Health

Arthritis is one of the most common causes of work disability in Canada. Among those with arthritis, three in five are in their working years (ages 18 to 65 years). Yet, little research has looked into the work experiences of young and middle-aged adults with arthritis. In this plenary, Dr. Arif Jetha shares his research examining the impact of important life transitions on the work experiences of young, middle-aged and older adults with arthritis.

15 Nov 2016

IWH Speaker Series

Return to work not a single event: applying new methods and data to understand RTW

Christopher McLeod, Institute for Work & Health

Returning to work after a work injury can be a complex process involving multiple episodes of time-loss. In this plenary, Dr. Christopher McLeod looks at newly available detailed calendar data on RTW among injured workers with accepted time-loss claims in British Columbia. He outlines how this data can be used to identify distinct clusters of RTW trajectories and highlights key demographic, clinical and work characteristics that may be associated with shorter and/or longer and more complex trajectories. He also explores the relevance of these data and methods in identifying effective interventions that can improve RTW outcomes.

8 Nov 2016

IWH Speaker Series

Managing safety and operations: The effect of joint management system practices on safety and operational outcomes

Lynda Robson, Institute for Work & Health

Can best practices in manufacturing and occupational safety be complementary or even synergistic? Or is there necessarily a trade-off between the two? What practices are important for achieving high performance in both manufacturing operations and safety? Dr. Lynda Robson presents results from an inter-disciplinary mixed-method research project. She highlights the “joint management system practices” associated with positive effects on both operational outcomes (e.g. product quality) and safety outcomes.

1 Nov 2016

IWH Speaker Series

What are physicians told about their role in return to work?

Agnieszka Kosny, Institute for Work & Health

Physicians have an important role in the return to work (RTW) process, but research shows that they sometimes struggle to manage RTW consultations and help patients return to work after an injury. As part of a broader exploration into the role played by doctors in RTW, an IWH team led by Dr. Agnieszka Kosny sought to examine resources, policies and guidelines that have been developed for physicians by workers’ compensation boards, governments and other organizations across Canada. In this plenary, Kosny highlights resource gaps that may hinder physicians’ understanding of their roles and responsibilities in the workers' compensation system and RTW process, and which may ultimately delay workers’ RTW after injury.

25 Oct 2016

IWH Speaker Series

Whole-body vibration: What can we do to reduce this known health risk?

Jim Dickey, Western University

Whole-body vibration (WBV) is a significant health risk for four to seven per cent of the workforce, primarily operators of heavy mobile vehicles. Negative health outcomes are associated with excessive vibration exposure, including lower-back pain, spinal degeneration, gastro-intestinal tract problems, sleep problems, headaches, neck problems, autonomic nervous system dysfunction, hearing loss, and nausea. In this plenary, Dr. Jim Dickey describes two approaches that have been successfully used to evaluate seating in heavy mobile machinery. He also shares why optimized seating should be considered for some workplaces.

24 May 2016

IWH Speaker Series

Sleep dysfunction in mild traumatic brain injury: relevance to work disability prevention

Tatyana Mollayeva, Rehabilitation Sciences Institute, University of Toronto

Sleep disturbance is a common problem experienced by those with mild traumatic brain injuries (TBI). While the disruption subsides relatively quickly for some, up to half of those with mild TBI report chronic sleep disturbances—which in turn can seriously impair day-to-day function and return to work. In this plenary, Dr. Tatyana Mollayeva discusses the relationship between sleep and relevant clinical and non-clinical factors as well as outcomes in a sample of Ontario workers with mild TBI. She also presents known risks for sleep dysfunction in mild TBI and the implications for work disability prevention.