IWH in the media

Long COVID can be difficult for workplaces to grapple with, due to the variety of symptoms, the way it flares up unexpectedly and the unclear timeline for recovery. IWH Senior Scientist Dr. Peter Smith is among the researchers interviewed in this episode of The Current.

In a study on the impact of a major depressive episode on people’s earnings, the research team found men who had an episode lost about $5,000 in annual earnings in the year the episode occurred and women lost about $4,500. Experiencing a major depressive episode was associated with a cumulative 10-year loss in earnings of roughly $115,000 for men and $71,000 for women.

As many organizations, including the City of Toronto, plan on bringing white-collar staff back to the office after some spent nearly two years working from home, employers are prioritizing employees’ mental-health support this year and beyond. Melissa Dunne interviews IWH Scientific Co-Director and Senior Scientist Dr. Peter Smith, among others.

According to a pair of studies conducted jointly by the Institute for Work & Health and Public Health Ontario, layers of COVID-19 infection control measures were adopted in majority of workplaces through pandemic during the second and third waves. And between April 2020 and March 2021, rates of workplace COVID-19 transmission in most sectors were lower than rates of community spread.

Less than half who reported missing two or more workdays as a result of an injury or disease submitted a claim to WorkSafeBC, according to a report from Institute for Work & Health. As Jim Wilson reports, just over half (53.7 per cent) did not submit a claim to WorkSafeBC and a quarter (26.7 per cent) reported that they received wage continuation from their employer or their workplace sick leave plan.

To help promote regular exercise among workers, workplaces must recognize that work conditions can sometimes be barriers to working out. IWH Associate Scientist Dr. Aviroop Biswas talks with NEWSTALK1010's Dave Trafford about employers can help workers make fitness part of their work day.

We know regular exercise is really good for health, but many workers do not exercise as much as they should. Yes, workplaces can help promote fitness. However, workplaces also need to look beyond individual responsibility to get active, and address the job conditions that can get in the way, writes IWH's Dr. Avi Biswas in this op-ed piece.

If we had, from the early days of the pandemic, routinely and systematically collected information from COVID-positive people about their work, we would have enhanced our understanding of the role of workplaces in the spread of COVID-19, the relative importance of mitigation strategies, and potentially allowed more people to continue working at the workplace with minimal risk. That's according to an op-ed co-authored by Institute for Work & Health's Dr. Peter Smith, Prof. Andrew Curran of the United Kingdom's Health and Safety Executive, and Dr. Letitia Davis of Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.

Canada has one of the highest rates of multiple scleroris and employers need to do more to accommodate, according to Julie Kelndorfer of MS Society of Canada. Maia Foulis interviews her about what workplaces can do to be safe and welcoming to people with the condition, and why the society is a partner on an Institute for Work & Health research project on communicating about episodic disability.

Dr. Heather Johnston is a recent recipient of the inaugural WorkSafeBC Ralph McGinn Postdoctoral Fellowship award. Her research project is on the risk factors and hazards common between work-related psychological injuries and musculoskeletal injuries, as well as how Canadian workplaces address these common risk factors.