IWH in the media

The coronavirus pandemic has negatively affected plenty of employees. But for those with physical or mental health challenges, a lack of support on the job has exacerbated the issues. John Dujay reports on a study conducted by Dr. Monique Gignac of the Institute for Work and Health (IWH).

For years, people with invisible disabilities—including neurodevelopmental disorders like autism and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD)—have campaigned for accommodations that would allow us to do our jobs well. Chief among these is the flexibility to work from home, writes Angela Lashbrook. The Institute's Dr. Arif Jetha is interviewed about how working from home was one of the most unmet work accommodation needs prior to the pandemic.

Cases of work-related non-melanoma skin cancer among construction workers in Ontario are on track to double by 2060. However, according to new research done by the Institute for Work & Health (IWH), if protective equipment and clothing such as long-sleeve shirts, pants and neck coverings are worn by construction workers, up to 6,034 cases of such cancers could be averted over the next three decades. That would result in $38 million in costs (in 2017 Canadian dollars) being saved over a 30-year period, Grant Cameron reports.

“Work is pretty much the only environment where people tend to stand for prolonged periods of time.” So said IWH's Dr. Peter Smith in an article by Em Cassel on the negative health effects of working on one's feet all day long.

Are work injury claims in B.C. being suppressed, under-claimed or misrepresented? The Institute for Work and Health (IWH) recently collaborated with Prism Economics and Analysis to conduct a study to find out. They concluded the rate of claim suppression of work-related injury or disease in B.C. is in the range of 3.7 to 13 per cent. They also found that the incidence of claim suppression appears to be higher where the employer has created a bonus plan that rewards employees keep a workplace incident-free.

Too many small workplaces do not have adequate occupational health and safety (OHS) tools available to keep their workers safe. Don Wall interviews Dr. Cameron Mustard, Institute for Work & Health president, who says it’s time for Ontario to redouble its efforts to ensure the province’s small employers conduct business in healthy and safe environments.

Young workers who are immunocompromised will need employers to continue to enforce COVID-19-prevention strategies. And paid sick leave will remain a priority to prevent workers from coming to work with COVID-19 symptoms, writes IWH's Dr. Arif Jetha in an op-ed.

When workers suffer from chronic stress or other mental illnesses related to their work, many organizations are at a loss. So, too, are workers’ compensation systems and health-care providers, according to an study conducted by IWH and Monash University. We need to change the way we view, respond to, and accommodate these conditions, writes Dr. Peter Smith in an op/ed.

There's no simple "yes" or "no" answer to the question, “Should I tell my employer I have a chronic condition that sometimes makes it hard to work?” At the Institute for Work & Health, researchers have been working to develop a research-based decision-making tool. In one of the studies conducted to support the tool’s evidence base, the team explored people’s reasons for disclosing their episodic condition and found they do matter to the support they get, writes Dr. Monique Gignac.

Workers who reported using cannabis before or during a shift – including supervisors and people in safety-sensitive jobs – had jobs and work environments in which detection was less likely, according to the results of a recent study out of Canada.