Total Worker Health in Action!

Volume 3 Number 3 August 2014

Managers’ Buzz

ANITA L. SCHILL, PhD, MPH, MA AND L. CASEY CHOSEWOOD, MD, MPH

We are very excited to announce two items that are “hot off the press.” First, registration is now OPEN for the 1^st International Symposium to Advance total worker health^TM! You are invited to join more than 500 scientists and practitioners from around the world on October 6-8, 2014 at the beautiful campus of the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, MD to learn about the latest science and practice on integrating health protection and health promotion. Be inspired by the Opening Session with renowned national and international leaders and three Plenary Sessions that explore new frontiers in worker health, safety, and well-being. Learn from leading experts in over thirty-six 75-minute, scientific and practice sessions demonstrating current research and workplace approaches to enhance organizational cultures of safety, health and well-being. Provide invaluable input that will help shape the very first agenda for the Nation on Total Worker Health in two town hall forums. Space will be limited, so reserve your spot today! To see the full agenda and register, visit www.eagleson.org/totalworkerhealth.

Second, today marks the launch of a new suite of web-based tools, called Total Worker Health: Let’s Get Started! A Practitioner’s Guide. These tools are designed for decision-makers and practitioners who understand the value of integrating health protection and health promotion and simply want to get started. Let’s Get Started is intended to serve as a gateway to state-of-the-art guidelines and tools for employers and others, enabling them to use an integrated approach as they create and enhance an organizational culture of safety and health. For highlights, check out New Initiatives and Resources.

Once again, we invite you to explore this issue of TWH in Action! to find other news, resources, and updates. Here’s a glimpse of what you’ll find:

• Total Worker Health Exclusive,, read how the NIOSH Office for TWH, Centers of Excellence, and others are thinking ahead to address the future training and professional development needs to best integrate health protection and health promotion policies and programs for the workers of tomorrow.
• News from Partners, read how Dartmouth-Hitchcock, NASA and the University of Colorado are applying the principles of Total Worker Health and learn how your organization can become a NIOSH Total Worker Health Affiliate.
• Promising Practices, learn how Western Kentucky University has begun offering educational programs that encourage students to integrate health promotion into occupational safety.
• In Conferences, Webinars and Trainings, find out how to join us for our next free webinar on August 19, “Intervening for Work-Stress: Work-life stress and Total Worker Health Approaches”!

We hope this newsletter inspires you to become a Total Worker Health advocate. Share your comments and stories about TWH in Action! with us on Twitter (@NIOSH_TWH), on the NIOSH Total Worker Health LinkedIn Group, or send us an email at TWH@cdc.gov. We’d love to hear from you!

TOTAL WORKER HEALTH^® Exclusive

Building Professional Development for Total Worker Health

ADELE CHILDRESS, PhD, MSPH, NIOSH OFFICE FOR TOTAL WORKER HEALTH

Over the past 40 years, NIOSH and other organizations, such as the World Health Organization and the Institute of Medicine have examined issues related to workforce development for professionals in occupational safety and health protection and health promotion. They have found a strong need in almost all health care disciplines to develop competent professionals with the skills and abilities to more comprehensively improve global and workplace health and well-being. This finding demonstrates an urgent, essential need to develop and support a more integrated approach to training and professional development.

This leads to the question: What skills and training are required to prepare professionals to address the complex challenges affecting the modern workplace? In a NIOSH-sponsored meeting of the extramurally funded Centers, for instance, many expressed that the current workforce training needs are in occupational health psychology. Dr. Martin Cherniack, co-director of the Center for Promotion of Health in the New England Workforce, cited an emerging need for revised curricula for physicians and nurses that reflect shifts in health care policy, as well as the importance of including occupational health in the training of environmental health and safety professionals.

The NIOSH Office for Total Worker Health is also examining this question and invites your input.

Current efforts by NIOSH, Centers of Excellence, and Others

NIOSH continues to support its mandate to protect workers’ safety and health through the education and training of professionals by means of workforce development programs. These programs occur extramurally, through research and training grants for academic institutions to establish multidisciplinary centers. Building upon this foundation of protecting worker safety and health and recognizing the gap in curriculum integration, the Office for TWH has begun defining key stakeholders for this issue and exploring training needs to equip health professionals to address issues related to the total worker health of employees and organizations. The Office for TWH is considering the cultural and economic nuances, differing objectives and organizational strategies, and complex interactions between the various stakeholders. The Office for TWH will be studying the implications of these factors for current and future practitioners of occupational safety and health, worksite health promotion, medicine, nursing, psychology, human resources and productivity management, and others.

Currently, NIOSH and the Centers of Excellence are providing various professional development opportunities. In February, NIOSH launched a Total Worker Health Webinar Series offering free continuing education credits (i.e., CEU, CNE, CME, and CHES) and providing the latest research and case studies on the integration of health protection and health promotion. The Harvard School of Public Health Center for Work, Health, and Well-being is offering its third course in January 2015, entitled “Work, Health, and Well-being: Integrating Wellness and Occupational Health and Safety in the Workplace.” In October at the 1^st International Symposium to Advance Total Worker Health, Pre and Post Conference Workshops will offer state of the art strategies and implementation tools for creating enhanced cultures of safety and health.

Outside of NIOSH, leading academic institutions are also making strides in developing trainings and curricula that integrate health protection and health promotion. For instance, this fall, Western Kentucky University (highlighted in this issue’s Promising Practices) will be implementing a Master of Science and advanced certificate program that features an integrated curriculum with both occupational safety and health promotion components. The Colorado School of Public Health (CSPH) now offers two graduate-level courses relevant to Total Worker Health, including one titled “Health Protection and Health Promotion in the Workplace,” and another interdisciplinary course structured around NIOSH Total Worker Health principles that allows students to conduct onsite workplace assessments of community organizations’ health protection and health promotion programs.

To address the current total worker health knowledge gaps in workplaces, CSPH’s Center for Worker Health & Environment runs Health Links^TM Colorado, a community-based program that certifies, funds, and trains small businesses on evidence-based practices to implement sustainable workplace health and safety programs. Dr. Lee Newman of CSPH noted, “In the short run, we need to focus on the retraining of those individuals who are already engaging workers in health, safety, or both. The demand is high and the supply of trained professionals low. For the long term, we need to train future leaders in the field of TWH, who can innovate, conduct research, evaluate, and effectively disseminate knowledge, so that the field grows in credibility.”

Continue the conversation

As the concept and rationale for a Total Worker Health approach continues to evolve, the question remaining will be how to translate those findings into practice—particularly, how to build them into long-term educational plans to inform the development of the next generation of professionals in this field. This will entail more communication and collaboration across professions, educational and training programs, and health care systems.

Are you interested in contributing to the conversation on workforce development in person? The Office for TWH warmly welcomes you to join us at the forthcoming 1^st International Symposium to Advance Total Worker Health, on October 6 – 8. The Symposium will feature an exclusive plenary and Q&A session with our panel of experts from the Centers of Excellence, on “Creating the First Generation of TWH Professionals.” Also, voice your opinions on our NIOSH Total Worker Health LinkedIn Group under the discussion: What are your thoughts on the main needs of and challenges in creating a workforce that can tackle total worker health issues?

Promising Practices for TOTAL WORKER HEALTH^®

In Promising Practices for TOTAL WORKER HEALTH^® we share with you examples of how employers from across the country and from a wide range of industries are taking steps to integrate both health promotion and health protection in their workplaces.

If your organization is proactively integrating health protection and health promotion to prevent injury and illness and advance the well-being of your workers, please email us at TWH@cdc.gov.

Disclaimer: The mention of organizations and commercial entities and products in this article is for illustrative purposes only and does not represent an endorsement by NIOSH, CDC, or the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

The Future of Integrated Practice, Education: Western Kentucky University Curriculum

MICHELLE LEE, PUBLIC HEALTH ASSOCIATE, NIOSH OFFICE FOR TOTAL WORKER HEALTH

Recognizing the emerging need for a workforce that can understand the potential synergy between safety, injury prevention, and wellness efforts, Western Kentucky University (WKU) has begun offering educational programs that encourage students to integrate health promotion into occupational safety and vice versa.

In fall 2014, WKU will offer a Master of Science in Environmental and Occupational Health Science, with both worksite wellness and safety components. In addition, an advanced certificate in worksite health promotion will be available that includes training on critical issues in health and safety.

Cecilia Watkins, who teaches worksite health promotion at WKU, has been one of the lead figures pushing for integration in the WKU curriculum. Each year she takes her students on a field trip to Logan Aluminum, a local business, but this year she brought along occupational safety and health students as well. Both sets of students attended presentations by Logan’s safety and wellness representatives.

In another example, students in Graduate Worksite Health Promotion are working collaboratively to develop a program integrating health protection and health promotion, using Logan as a case study. A key instructional resource in this elective has been The Whole Worker: Guidelines for Integrating Occupational Health and Safety with Workplace Wellness Programs, one of the resources featured on our Guidelines for Implementing TWH Programs webpage. For more information on developments related to integrated educational offerings at WKU, visit http://www.wku.edu/online/worksitehealth or email cecilia.watkins@wku.edu.

Rethinking the educational framework is only one important piece of current efforts toward integration in Kentucky. The Kentucky Department for Public Health Worksite Wellness Program and the Kentucky Injury Prevention and Research Center (KIPRC) at the University of Kentucky are bringing together the lead agencies and thinkers in the state for worksite wellness, injury prevention, and occupational safety and health, as well as strong linkages with small business. While these programs have long been strong in their own right, they are now taking bold, new steps to integrate health protection and health promotion for even better outcomes.

Editor’s note: For a broader look at total worker health workforce development across the nation, don’t miss this issue’s Total Worker Health Exclusive! For more information on what steps the state of Kentucky is taking toward integrating workplace safety with workplace wellness, be sure to check out last issue’s News from Our Partners!

Healthier Feds

A growing body of scientific evidence indicates that the quality of the work environment is a predictor of individual health behaviors. In support of this notion, the federal government is providing opportunities for advanced health and well-being in its own workforce. The purpose of this section is to spotlight ways in which the federal community is improving the health and safety of federal employees.

Healthier Federal Workers 2014

Attend the only national meeting dedicated to the health, safety and well-being of America’s Federal workforce…

You’ll hear from more than 25 leading national experts, including opening remarks from Acting US Surgeon General RADM Boris Lushniak and NIOSH Director, John Howard, MD, who’ll share the latest in-depth science, the most promising practices, and ready-to-use tools for delivering better workplace health, safety and well-being.

Hear from celebrity chef Cary Neff from Oprah and O Magazine on creating “stealthy healthy” nutrition in your organization!

From four jam-packed plenary sessions to two practical break-out tracks, numerous panels and audience participation options and 5 post-conference courses, you’ll chart your own learning based upon your own needs and challenges. And, just as in past years, you’ll live and breathe healthier activities and other well-being options. You’ll take part in hands-on demonstrations and have access to healthier food options to improve your own health and well-being. To view the full detailed agenda and register, visit www.eagleson.org/HFW.

Updates from NIOSH Office for Total Worker Health^TM

Share your input on the National Total Worker Health Agenda!

The Office for Total Worker Health at NIOSH announces three town-hall opportunities to comment on priority areas of future workplace safety and health research in the first-ever National Total Worker Health Agenda. Town-hall meetings will be held at the Natcher Conference Center, National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, MD on October 7 from 12:30-1:45pm EDT and 5:00 – 6:15pm EDT at the 1st International Symposium to Advance Total Worker Health and from 1:15-2:30pm EDT on October 9 at the Healthier Federal Workers 2014 Conference. Town hall meetings are open to participants who have registered for one or both conferences. In the coming months, we anticipate opening a NIOSH Docket for additional stakeholder input. More information about the two conferences and how to register is available at www.eagleson.org.

NIOSH Convenes 4th Annual National Expert Colloquium on TWH

The Fourth Annual National Expert Colloquium on Total Worker Health was convened by NIOSH on June 26 in Washington, DC. The NIOSH Office for TWH invited 16 experts to discuss current efforts and emerging issues related to the integration of health protection and health promotion in the workplace and beyond. Invited experts represented labor organizations (Laborers’ Health & Safety Fund of North America, Communication Workers of America, Kaiser Coalition of Kaiser Permanente Unions), private industry (General Electric, Alcoa, McCormick), academia (University of North Carolina, University of Michigan, NIOSH-funded Centers of Excellence to Promote a Healthier Workforce), and other leaders from around the globe (National Safety Council, American Association of Occupational Health Nurses, Clinton Health Matters Initiative, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation).

National Academies/Institute of Medicine Workshop on Total Worker Health: Presentations and audio now available

On Thursday, May 22 in Washington, DC, the Institute of Medicine convened a free public workshop, “Total Worker Health: Promising and Best Practices in the Integration of Occupational Safety and Health Protection and Health Promotion in the Workplace.” The NIOSH-funded workshop, chaired by Dr. Glorian Sorensen from the Harvard Center for Work, Health and Well-being, identified best or promising practices in the integration of occupational safety and health with health promotion in small, medium, and large workplaces. The keynote presentation was by Robert McLellan, Medical Director of the Live Well/Work Well program at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center, who shared the steps Dartmouth-Hitchcock took toward an integrated approach. All of the presentations and audio recordings are available at www.iom.edu/Activities/Environment/TotalWorkerHealth/2014-MAY-22.aspx. The Institute of Medicine will publish a summary of the workshop by the end of the year. Of course, we’ll let you know as soon as it’s available.

Updates from NIOSH Centers of Excellence to Promote a Healthier Workforce

Oregon Healthy Workforce Center (OHWC)

In July, the Oregon Healthy Workforce Center (OHWC) hosted the 2014 National Symposium for Corrections Worker Health and Occupational Health Psychology Summer Institute in Portland, Oregon. Conference materials and slides are available on the OHWC website.

The Center for the Promotion of Health in the New England Workplace (CPH-NEW)

CPH-NEW recently awarded two pilot grants on topics of commuting stress and custodial workers health and safety interventions. To read about them please visit: http://www.uml.edu/Research/Centers/CPH-NEW/pilot-grant-program
/2014-Pilot-Grants.aspx

Study Participants Wanted for Healthy Workplace Participatory Program Toolkit Evaluation

Are you using elements of the CPH-NEW Healthy Workplace Participatory Program toolkit? If so, please join the Center’s Healthy Workplace follow-up evaluation study. CPH-NEW will provide incentives for completing a survey and an interview. Please sign up to participate or contact Suzanne_Nobrega@uml.edu for more information.

Recently published by CPH-NEW are two CPH News and Views emerging issue briefs. (CPH News and Views is a semimonthly column on emerging topics related to healthy workplaces)

• Issue #36: Can Total Worker Health benefit from considering the positive side of the health continuum? (Robert Henning, PhD, Andrea Bizarro, MA, and Diana Tubbs, MA)
• Issue #37: Minding the gap between research and practice: Can we predict which organizations and people will most successfully implement a health-oriented innovation? (Alicia Dugan, PhD)

Harvard Center for Work, Health, and Well-being

Psychosocial and physical workplace exposures can affect workers in many different ways. Two new scientific reports from the Harvard Center for Work, Health, and Well-being highlight the workplace exposures and experiences of patient care and construction workers:

• Caban-Martinez AJ, Lowe KA, Herrick R, Kenwood C, Gagne JJ, Becker JF, Schneider SP, Dennerlein JT, Sorensen G [2014]. Construction workers working in musculoskeletal pain and engaging in leisure-time physical activity: findings from a mixed-methods pilot study. Am J Ind Med 57(7):819–825. Results from this mixed-methods study suggest not only do construction workers engage in either moderate or vigorous leisure-time physical activity (LTPA) despite musculoskeletal pain but also that construction workers in pain engage in more LTPA than those without pain.
• Jacobsen H, Reme SE, Sembajwe G, Hopcia K, Stoddard A, Kenwood C, Stiles T, Sorensen G, Buxton O. Work-family conflict, psychological distress, and sleep deficiency among patient care workers. J Workplace Health Safety (in press). Findings from this study suggest that higher levels of work–family conflict are significantly associated with sleep deficiency and long-term sleep insufficiency.
• Harvard Center for Work, Health, and Well-being investigators Jack Dennerlein,PhD, and Deborah McLellan, PhD, were invited to present in May at the Brazilian Social Services for Industry (SESI) meeting in Brazil. Dr. Dennerlein’s presentation was entitled “Total Worker Health ^TM Approaches: Research to Practice through Industrial Collaboration”. Dr. McLellan presented “Total Worker Health ^TM Approaches: Promoting and Protecting Worker Health.”

University of Iowa Healthier Workforce Center for Excellence (HWCE)

As health care and health insurance costs increase sharply, employers and employees struggle to maintain quality of health care coverage and benefits. To address the need for baseline, evidence-based data on the statewide workforce, the University of Iowa Healthier Workforce Center for Excellence developed the Real Iowan Research Initiative (RIRI) with a goal of providing statewide employment sector estimates of health status, prevention, and productivity measures. A statewide survey of 1,602 Iowans included items from the CDC Quality-of-Life (QoL) and BRFSS prevention behavior questionnaires and was used to assess employee well-being. QoL and prevention behavior measures were related to absenteeism and presenteeism scores derived from the World Health Organization Health and Work Performance Questionnaire (HPQ). Key findings include:

• Having higher QoL measures and having more prevention behaviors are strongly associated with lower absenteeism and lower presenteeism scores
• Employment status matters: the unemployed had poorer QoL scores and prevention behaviors
• QoL scores and prevention behaviors were much better for the self-employed than for those who were organizationally employed

The full article, Employment Status Matters—A Statewide Survey of Quality-of-Life, Prevention Behaviors, and Absenteeism and Presenteeism, was published on July 7 in the Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine. A commentary on this article by Martin Sepulveda, IBM Fellow and Vice President of Integrated Health Services for the IBM Corporation, is included in the issue.

News from our Partners

Dartmouth-Hitchcock, University of Colorado and NASA Join Total Worker Health as Inaugural Partners in Launch of Affiliate Program

To increase the number of work environments that support the overall safety, health and well-being of workers, NIOSH Office for Total Worker Health recently launched an Affiliate Program. Inaugural members leading the way for improved workplace and worker safety, health and well-being include the Dartmouth-Hitchcock, University of Colorado, School of Public Health and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA).

Dartmouth-Hitchcock’s vision is to achieve the healthiest population possible, leading the transformation of health care in the Northeast U.S. region and setting the standard for our nation. The University of Colorado’s Center for Worker Health and Environment has a robust and growing continuing education program, public-private partnerships, and community-based initiative to integrate worksite health promotion and health protection. And NASA has a long history of dedication to health protection and promotion, being recognized in an Institute of Medicine report Integrating Employee Health: A Model Program for NASA, for “being forward-looking in designing programs aimed at improving the health and wellness of its employees.”

“At NIOSH, we recognize the benefits of integrating traditional workplace safety and health programs with newer worker health promotion programs to achieve total worker health,” said NIOSH Director John Howard, M.D. “The Affiliate Program helps to further advance the integration of health protection and health promotion within other organizations.”

Participation in the Affiliate Program is voluntary and intended for public sector entities; labor organizations; academic institutions; federal, state, or local entities; and, non-profit associations that align with the principles of a Total Worker Health^TM approach. If your organization is interested in becoming a NIOSH TWH Affiliate, please visit the NIOSH Total Worker Health website at /niosh/twh/affiliate.html or contact the Office for Total Worker Health via email at twh@cdc.gov.

New Initiatives and Resources

Let’s Get Started! A Practitioner’s Guide to Integrating Workplace Safety and Health with Health Promotion

Today we launch a new suite of web-based tools and resources, called Total Worker Health: Let’s Get Started! A Practitioner’s Guide to Integrating Workplace Safety and Health with Health Promotion. The collection of webpages is designed for decision-makers and practitioners who understand the value of total worker health and simply want to get started. Let’s Get Started is intended to serve as a gateway to state-of-the-art guidelines and tools for employers, enabling them to use an integrated approach toward creating and enhancing an organizational culture of safety and health.

Here are some highlights:

• Top Reasons to Create a New Pathway for a Safer and Healthier Workforce is a shareable infographic that visually lays out a compelling rationale for total worker health. Download the full infographic or slides by visiting http://cdc.gov/niosh/twh/topreasons/infographic.html
• Making the Business Case compiles recent findings supporting the potential benefits to a company’s bottom line of using a total worker health approach. Combined with the infographic, these two sources are ideal for including in your presentation to senior leadership, decision makers, and other stakeholders in communicating the value of an integrated approach.
• Simple Steps You Can Take to Get Started features easy-to-use tips and tools combined with guiding principles and practical direction for organizations seeking to develop effective workplace programs. This includes a list of low-cost “Ideas You Can Implement Right Now” and a “Worksheet to Help You Get Started” and the “NIOSH Essential Elements of Effective Workplace Programs”. Each page includes a print-ready version so you can get started right away!
• Assessment Tools and Guidelines for Integrated Programs provides the latest guidance and principles for developing, implementing, and evaluating integrated approaches as well as an emerging set of assessment tools to use when considering the development of an integrated program.

New Publications Suggest using an Integrated Approach to Address Chronic Health Conditions at Work

Cancer Prevention and Worksite Health Promotion: Time to Join Forces, Preventing Chronic Disease, Vol. 11

Recently published in Preventing Chronic Disease, “Cancer Prevention and Worksite Health Promotion: Time to Join Forces,” is an essay that indicates a multifaceted approach to cancer prevention in the workplace is timely and needed. In this essay, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and NIOSH experts, including Drs. Casey Chosewood and Anita Schill and LCDR Heidi Hudson, share existing CDC resources that can be leveraged to expand the scope of workplace initiatives to address additional cancer risk factors and disparities. Included is an integrated approach to health protection and health promotion and linkages with community-based resources. Combined these resources can also provide ideas for new efforts to advance primary cancer prevention among working adults.

Prevalence of Coronary Heart Disease or Stroke Among Workers Aged <55 Years — United States, 2008–2012 MMWR, Vol. 63, No. 30 

In this issue of MMWR, NIOSH’s Sara E. Luckhaupt, MD and Geoffrey M. Calvert, MD highlights that in workplace settings, cardiovascular disease can be addressed through Total Worker Health. To identify workers likely to benefit from these types of programs, CDC analyzed data from the National Health Interview Survey (NHIS) for the period 2008–2012 to estimate the prevalence of a history of coronary heart disease and/or stroke (CHD/stroke) among adults aged <55 years by selected characteristics, employment status, occupation category, and industry of employment.

Conferences, Webinars and Trainings

Conferences

2014 National Healthcare Ergonomics Conference
The Oregon Healthy Workforce Center and the Oregon Institute of Occupational Health Sciences will be sponsors and exhibitors at the 2014 National Healthcare Ergonomics Conference, to be held September 8–11 in Portland, OR. OHWC staff will deliver technical presentations within the wellness track, which will begin with a keynote speech on Total Worker Health by Dr. L. Casey Chosewood.

American Heart Association’s Worksite Wellness Summit
The Oregon Healthy Workforce Center and the Oregon Institute of Occupational Health Sciences will also sponsor the American Heart Association’s Worksite Wellness Summit on September 17, at the Oregon Convention Center in Portland. The theme of this year’s summit is Powering Total Worker Health.

Call for Proposals for Work Stress Health 2015 (Deadline: October 6)
The Work Stress Health 2015 (WSH 2015) Planning Committee has opened its call for proposals and the online submission portal! The theme of the conference, which will take place in Atlanta on May 6–9, 2015, is “Sustainable Work, Sustainable Health, Sustainable Organizations.” To access the call for proposals and for more details, please visit the official conference website: http://www.apa.org/wsh.

1^st International Symposium to Advance Total Worker Health
Registration is NOW OPEN for the 1st International Symposium to Advance TOTAL WORKER HEALTH^®. The symposium will be held October 6 – 8 on the campus of the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, MD. Join more than 500 scientists and practitioners from around the world and learn the state of the science and practice using a coordinated approach that integrates health protection and health promotion. To register and see the full detailed agenda, visit www.eagleson.org/totalworkerhealth.

Healthier Federal Workers 2014
Reserve your spot now for Healthier Federal Workers 2014 at the healthy and historic campus of the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, MD on October 8 – 10! Join more than 200 of your colleagues from over 50 Federal Agencies at the ONLY health, safety and well-being conference dedicated to the Federal workforce! This event builds upon successful conferences in 2011 and 2012 and promises to be more informative, more impactful and more engaging than ever before. To register, visit http://www.eagleson.org/conferences/healthier-federal-workers-2014

Upcoming Speaking Engagements

For past speaking engagements, visit /niosh/TWH/conferences.html

On August 11, Dr. L. Casey Chosewood will speak on the “Importance of Improving Worker Health and Wellbeing” at the American Association of State Compensation Insurance Funds Annual Conference in Washington, DC.

On August 22 from 12:00pm-1:00pm EST, LCDR Heidi Hudson will join the Centers of Excellence to highlight the latest tools and resources for implementing an integrated health protection and health promotion program in a webinar hosted by HPLive.org. http://hplive.org/events/charting_the_path_to_total_worker_health
LCDR Heidi Hudson will present on Total Worker Health to the Zainesville Safety Council on August 27 in Zainesville, OH.

Dr. L. Casey Chosewood will provide a keynote speech titled “Prevention Culture—Prevention Strategies—Vision Zero” at the World Congress on Safety and Health at Work, August 24-27, in Frankfurt, Germany.

On September 8, Dr. L. Casey Chosewood will present the keynote at the 2014 National Healthcare Ergonomics Conference, to be held September 8–11 in Portland, OR.

Ms. Chia Chang will deliver the closing presentation at the Panhandle Safety & Wellness Conference, on September 23 in Gering, Nebraska.

Dr. L. Casey Chosewood will provide the luncheon keynote address at the Work Life Congress 2014: Breakout & Breakthrough, which will take place October 13-15, in New York, NY.

Ms. Chia Chang and Dr. Sara Tamers of NIOSH’s Office for Total Worker Health will present “Safer, Healthier, and More Engaged: Your Guide to Creating Total Worker Health” at the American Industrial Hygiene Association Fall Conference, on October 20 in Washington, DC.

Dr. L. Casey Chosewood will deliver the opening keynote presentation at the 23rd Annual National Workers’ Compensation and Disability Conference & Expo in Las Vegas, Nevada, November 19-21, 2014.

Webinars and Training Opportunities

Registration open for NIOSH Total Worker Health Webinar Series: August 19, 12:00pm to 1:30pm EDT

Please join us on August 19 from 12:00pm to 1:30pm EDT with Dan Ganster, PhD and Leslie Hammer, PhD on the topic “Intervening for Work Stress: Work-life Stress and Total Worker Health Approaches.” Registration now open!

This free webinar is part of a series designed to provide the latest research and case studies for protecting the health—in every sense of the word—of all workers. Free continuing education credit are available, including CEU, CNE, CME, and CHES!

Drs. Dan Ganster and Leslie Hammer will discuss psychosocial stress at work and interventional approaches for alleviating it. Dan will briefly introduce the literature on psychosocial stress and well-being, focusing on key definitions and the working conditions implicated in worker mental and physical health. Then, he will discuss practical interventions that focus on removing or reducing stressors in the workplace. Using several examples of intervention studies, he will discuss key elements to incorporate when designing workplace interventions. He will also outline simple approaches to evaluating the effectiveness of such interventions.

Leslie will discuss more specifically the concept of work-life stress and its association with health, safety, well-being, and organizational outcomes. She will briefly review how comprehensive integrated solutions at both the occupational (health protection) and individual (health promotion) levels may be helpful in mitigating effects of work-life stress and improving health, consistent with the Total Worker Health approach. This presentation will review relationships between work-life stress and health to advance understanding of pathways between occupational and individual risk factors and health and safety outcomes.

CPH-NEW Healthy Workplace Training Webinar Series

This webinar training series will teach you how to use specific components of the CPH-NEW Healthy Workplace Participatory Program toolkit, adapting them to your organization’s needs. The materials are suitable for organizations at any level of experience with worksite health and safety programs

To learn more information about the webinar series, including continuing education opportunities, visit the NIOSH Total Worker Health Webinar Series webpage. To reserve your spot for this presentation, visit the event registration page.

OHWC Webinar Recording: SEDENTARY, STATIONARY AND PHYSICALLY DEMANDING WORK

A recording is available of the OHWC webinar entitled “Sedentary, Stationary, and Physically Demanding Work: Health Consequences and Workplace Solutions” on the OHWC webpage at http://www.ohsu.edu/xd/research/centers-institutes/oregon-institute-occupational
-health-sciences/outreach/sedentary-and-stationary-work.cfm
We would love to hear from you! Please send your comments and suggestions to us at twh@cdc.gov

This newsletter is published quarterly via email by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health Office for Total Worker Health Coordination and Research Support to inform members of the public health community as well as interested members of the general public of program-related news, new publications, and updates on existing activities and initiatives.