Community-Engaged Research in Workplace Health & Safety

Community-Engaged Research in Workplace

Health & Safety

Stephen Bornstein Memorial University

The Safety Net Centre for

Occupational Health & Safety Research _{• Mandate}

• multidisciplinary research on workplace H & S

• knowledge mobilization

• capacity development

• training

• Organizing principle:

a ‘community alliance’ approach

2

• Overview

• Twelve years of work, three examples:

o

Developing an Occupational Disease Registry

o

Participatory Ergonomics Toolkit

o

Safe Fishing Wharves

• Benefits and Challenges of a Community Alliance Approach to OHS Research

• Questions and Discussion

3

Occupational Disease Registries:

Baie Verte and Beyond

Lar Hoven

Baie Verte Peninsula Miners’ Action Committee

Stephen Bornstein

SafetyNet Centre for Occupational Health & Safety Research, MUN

4

Background

Community-engaged project to develop a “ registr y ” for the former employees of the BV asbestos mine and mill

o

Funders: the NL Workplace Health, Safety and

Compensation Commission (WHSCC) with support from Memorial, other universities and a workers’

health clinic

o

A multidisciplinary team of researchers from

multiple provinces guided by a “ Working Group”

with representatives from:

– the WHSCC

– the BV Peninsula Miners’ Action Committee – the United Steel Workers

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• Baie Verte

• - the place

Baie Verte

6

Why a registry?

• Asbestos exposures can lead to or increase the risk of developing:

•

asbestosis

•

other forms of lung damage (e.g., pleural fibrosis)

•

lung cancer

•

mesothelioma

•

ovarian cancer

•

cancer of the larynx

•

possibly other cancers, including GI cancers

7

Why a Registry…

• Occupational diseases often become

manifest several decades after exposures

• Miners can be highly mobile, moving between mines as they open and close

• Health professionals may not ask about work history and may not be familiar with the OH risks of asbestos exposures

• Contributes to risk of under-diagnosis and difficulty assembling medical information

needed to file successfully for compensation.

• Can add to our understanding of health risks of chrysotile asbestos

8

• Getting the Registry funded:

• Mine officially opened: 1963

• Mine officially closed:1994

• Original recommendation for a registry: 1977

• Ongoing pressure for a registry from:

o

Miners and the community

o

BVP Miners’ Action Committee

o

United Steel Workers Union

• Decision to fund a registry: 2007

• Completion of the registry: 2013 (35 years later)

In short: Registries are contested terrain

9

Project Outputs

• The Baie Verte Miners’ Registry

o

Confidential electronic database with

demographic, health, work history, exposure and compensation information for each

registrant

o

Individual information accessible to

registrants (on request) and to WHSCC where have consented and/or where file for

compensation

• Information package for each registrant/proxy

• Health care brochure for health professionals

• Final report including analysis of key issues available at www.safetynet.mun.ca

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Results

• 1244 contacts made

• Completed registrants: 1003

• Medically confirmed cases of ARDs: 169-- not including GI cancers

• 145 registrants have filed a claim but only 45 claims have been accepted

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Reflections on the BV Registry as Community-Engaged Research

•Community and union representation on the working group was essential to the design of the registry outputs, to the approach and to the willingness of SafetyNet and affiliated researchers to take on the contract.

•Roles of SN Team and Working Group in the Registry Project:

• design of the project

• implementation

• oversight

• final report

• dissemination and follow-up

•Relative influence of WG members

• Overall assessment as a community-engaged initiative

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A Team Approach:

Collaborative Development of a Toolkit to help Ergonomists and Workplaces

Implement an Ergo-Team Approach to Participatory Ergonomics

David Antle, Barb Neis, Nicole Vezina

www.participatoryergonomics.mun.ca

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The problem

Workplace musculoskeletal

injuries are an incredible burden to society and industry

Rivilis et al, 2010;

We know a great deal about injury risk factors in the work place

We need to find ways to positively influence what

actually happens in very diverse and dynamic workplaces to

make a difference.

Participatory Ergonomics (PE)

• Uses stakeholder knowledge of social and organizational factors, combined with

expertise of ergonomists/ researchers, to

identify issues and develop effective solutions

• Requires key company stakeholders to be involved during all phases of the

intervention

• Managers, employees, maintenance, etc.

• Involvement includes

o Education

o Selection of intervention areas

o Assessment

o Development and implementation of solutions

o On-going capacity and process

• The Participatory Ergonomics Toolkit is a free set of tools designed for use by

facilitating ergonomists interested in

implementing an Ergo-Team approach to

addressing ergonomic issues in the workplace.

•

The Toolkit is designed to assist workplaces in:

• identifying causes

• developing strategies

• evaluating changes

Available free on the internet.

TOOLKIT CONTENTS:

Promotional Video – A Team Approach



Step by step guide



Summarizes key literature



Outlines role of ergonomist, stakeholders



Success factors; potential issues



Outlines each step of the approach



Written for an ergonomist, but also useful for:



Managers, OHS reps,

Rehabilitation Specialists, Union Represenatives

User’s Guide

TRAINING WORKBOOK AND TOOLS

o Training for Ergo-Team members

o 12 modules

o Activities, teaching aids and

key tools to apply at each step

of the intervention

What led to the development of this toolkit?

1. Study of RSI’s in a rural fishplant and related changes

2. Plant representatives ask SN to ‘leave something behind’

3. Successful CIHR Knowledge-to-Action grant 4. Development of draft tools

5. Establishment of Ergo-Team in Plant A using tools 6. Plant A Ergo-Team presented toolkit in a

SafetyNet symposium

7. Plant B requested transfer of the toolkit to their

workplace 20

8. Presentation of draft toolkit to PE expert researchers

9. Further testing/refinement by implementing in urban poultry and snackfood processing plants 10. Finalize and launch the toolkit (CIHR Café Scientifique) in NL and Alberta

11. Treat as a “working document”

12. Lead author/Ph.D. student now working with EWI – firm that helps companies deal with OHS issues that uses the toolkit in their work.

13. Timeframe – start to finish: roughly 10 years ²¹

Safety on Newfoundland and Labrador Fishing Wharves

Ben Jackson, Barb Neis, Andrew Canning, Scott McKinnon

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Product: Report and multiple

recommendations on ways to improve safety on fishing wharves in the province

Where did the project come from?

Raised as an issue in a fisheries OHS symposium

Concerns reinforced by a fatality on a fishing wharf in a community where we were working Focus: Are there OHS issues? What are they?

Why do they exist? How might risk be

reduced? 23

Ingredients:

• Funding (patched together from different sources)

• Committed research assistant

• Multi-stakeholder steering committee

that provided input into research design, reviewed and commented on draft

reports, etc.

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Results

a. Report that reviews existing research, documents and makes visible range of OHS incidents on fishing wharves b. Publication(s) dealing with understudied issue

(globally)

c. Provides a sense of relative frequency of these incidents, groups most at risk

d. Notes inconsistencies in perceptions of risk

e. Documents complex regulatory issues associated with improving safety on wharves

f. Recommendations for further research and for

improving safety refined with multi-stakeholder input

g. Timeline – roughly 4 years start to finish 25

Insights from 3 cases?

 Different funding strategies/dynamics

 Different governance/organizational approaches

 Benefits of a problem solving approach and building on existing

relationships/insights

 Long timelines

 Requirement for an engaged lead who carries the work forward through multiple

phases to some kind of completion ²⁶

Relevant SafetyNet Resources www.safetynet.mun.ca

Baie Verte Miners’ Registry www.bvminers.ca

Participatory Ergonomics Toolkit

http://www.participatoryergonomics.mun.ca/PE_Toolkit/

Bornstein S and Neis B. Research on the periphery: the

SafetyNet Centre for Occupational Health and Safety

Research. Policy and Practice in Health and Safety 2010;

8 (1): 3-4.

Coombs-Thorne H, Bradbury E, Neis B, Bornstein S,

MacKinnon S and Parent R. Interjurisdictional knowledge transfer in occupational safety and health: lessons from eastern Canada. Policy and Practice in Health and Safety 2010; 8 (1): 95-109.