CRWDP E-Alert September - December 2017 Events recap I. National Conference “Disability and Work in Canada” The Disability and Work in Canada national conference took place in Ottawa on November 27-29, 2017. CRWDP jointly hosted the conference with the Canadian Council on Rehabilitation and Work, the Ontario Network of Injured Workers Groups, and InclusionNL. The conference brought together about 150 delegates from across the country, including policy-makers, community service organizations, unions, employers, researchers, and most importantly, injured workers and persons with disabilities. The conference program offered many opportunities for the stakeholders to discuss the diversity of standpoints on complex issues, including the information sessions on Nov 27, and breakout table discussions. The new book “Work Disability in Canada – Portraits of the System”, was introduced by the author Dustin Galer. Articles about the conference written by Uyen Vu from IWH will soon be published by the Ontario Occupational Health Nurses Association (OOHNA) and in the Winter issue of At Work (IWH). For more information about the conference: https://crwdp.ca/en/national-conference-disability-and-work-canada II. Journée d’échange «L’INTEGRATION OU LA REINTEGRATION AU TRAVAIL DES PERSONNES PRESENTANT DES INCAPACITES: ENJEUX, DEFIS ET PISTES DE SOLUTION» (Knowledge Exchange Day “Work integration or reintegration of people with disabilities: issues, challenge, and potential solutions”) Le 15 novembre 2017, s’est tenue à Québec une journée d’échange portant sur les politiques canadiennes en matière d’invalidité. Cette journée visait à réunir différents acteurs concernés par les enjeux associés au travail chez les personnes vivant avec des incapacités, chercheurs, étudiants, associations communautaires, organismes d’indemnisation, dans le but de s’informer de de réfléchir sur cette question sur la base de connaissances tirées de travaux de recherche et de réalités terrain. A Knowledge Exchange Day on Canadian work disability policies was held on November 15th, 2017 in Quebec city. Diverse stakeholders, including researchers, students, representatives of community service organizations, persons with disabilities, and representatives of Quebec’s workers compensation board exchanged their ideas and reflected on the available academic and ground data. For more information about the conference: https://crwdp.ca/en/journee-dechange-politiques-canadiennes-matiere-dinvalidite-professionnelle III. The Injured Worker and Social Assistance Policy Research and Action Forum The Forum was held on Nov. 23rd and 24th in Toronto. The main question guiding the Forum was «What happens to injured workers who do not return to work». Pam Lahey, Rebecca Gewurtz, Stephanie Premji, Mieke Koehorn, Alec Farquhar, Steven Mantis and other CRWDP members made presentations at the Forum. Keynote speech was made by Dr. Elizabeth Kilgour from Monash University, Australia. Upcoming Events I. The next Roundtable on Inclusion will be held on April 17th, 2018. It is organized by CRWDP NL Cluster members in SafetyNet, in collaboration with COD-NL, Empower, and the NL Federation of Labour. This public event will combine presentations, panels and open discussions. For more information: https://crwdp.ca/en/roundtable-inclusion-2018 II. Upcoming Policy and Research Discussion sessions of the Bancroft Institute for Studies on Workers’ Compensation and Work Injury: * Mar. 5-6, 2018: Workers’ Compensation and Health/Health Care issues * May 15, 2018: International Comparators in Compensation and Employment Policy The information and videos from the past sessions are available: https://crwdp.ca/en/bancroft-institute III. IWH Speaker Series presentation on January 30, 2018: “Systematic review of workplace interventions to manage depression”. Those who can’t attend in person can join via live stream, and a slidecast of the plenary will be available after the presentation. http://www.iwh.on.ca/plenaries Operations Activities I. Ontario Cluster cross-pod strategy meeting on October 17th, 2017. Pod leaders brought forward the priorities and action plans identified by their pod members to see how the pod activities complemented one another and to identify potential areas for collaboration and cooperation. The Monitoring the Right to Work Pod has been working on consultations, research and exploring potential resources for the design of an online database to gather and organize information on resources on the right to work. The Income Supplementation Pod has agreed to act as a forum for knowledge exchange to keep each other informed about what members are doing in the field and is currently developing a background on Basic Income. The Employer’s Capacity pod has continued to develop action tables were drafted based on these meetings – one identifying targets, challenges and opportunities in the public sector, and one focusing on the private sector. Having circulated the tables for feedback and discussion, we have further revised and distilled to key priorities that have emerged from meetings and input from members. Students and New Researchers News I. Thank you to the CRWDP students who have submitted their annual reports: Aleksandra Stefanovic (Memorial University), Audrey Bernard (Laval University), Bénédicte Calvet (Université du Québec à Montréal), Cameron Crawford (York University), Dana Corfield (York University), Tammy Bernasky (York University), Firat Sayin (McMaster University), Francis Charrier (XXX), Julia Goya (University of Waterloo), Sabrina Hossain (McMaster University), Young Jung (McMaster University). Highlights of some of the students’ activities: * Aleksandra Stefanovic published a paper Disability and Civic Engagement in Newfoundland and Labrador, which was peer-reviewed and published by ISER Books in The Democracy Cookbook: Recipes to Renew Governance in Newfoundland and Labrador. In the paper, Aleksandra draws some parallels between opportunities for labour market participation and political participation for individuals with disabilities. The paper is available online: http://www.thetelegram.com/opinion/democracy-cookbook-disability-and-civic-engagement-in-newfoundland-and-labrador-158510/ * Bénédicte Calvet presented at four conferences over the last year * Cameron Crawford was a member of the External Working Group that provided input to the development of the Government of Ontario’s most recent Provincial Employment Strategy for People with Disabilities. He has played a significant role in the evaluation of a large, national employment project that focuses on strengthening employer capacity and interest to hire people with significant levels of disability in Canada * Dana Corfield was a Student Lead for the Income Replacement Policy Pod in the Ontario Cluster, from September 2016 to April 2017 * Francis Charrier made five presentations at conferences over the last year * Piotr Majkowski successfully defended his Master's in Public Health dissertation entitled "Guides and Guilds in the Labyrinth: Perspectives of Labour Advocates on BC’s Work Disability System" * Regina Belloso has been working with Nina Hansen, the Director of the BC Federation of Labour, on a Speaker School * Young Jung plays a key role in preparing the data resources from CCRW to make them available for fellow researchers. As well, he actively participated and contributed to the success of the National Conference “Disability and Work in Canada”. II. CRWDP welcomes new graduate students: * Amy Sheppard, PhD program, Memorial University * Anum Rafiq, PhD program, York University * Firat Sayin, PhD program, McMaster University (renewal) * Julia Goya, Master’s program, University of Waterloo (renewal) * Sabrina Hossain, Master’s program, McMaster University (renewal) * Samadhi Mora Severino, PhD program, York University * Young Jung, PhD program, McMaster University (renewal) III. In 2017, three CRWDP Students used the opportunity to receive financial support from CRWDP to attend conferences and training: * Francis Charrier who presented at the 6TH Annual Conference of ALTER "Disability, Recognition and "Community living". Diversity of practices and plurality of values" (July 6-7, 2017), and the 5th disABILITY MUNDUS doctoral school "PERFORMING disABILITY" (July, 2-5, 2017), Lousanne, Switzerland * Douglas Waxman who participated in 2017 Harkin Summit on Global Disability Employment (Washington DC, November 2-3, 2017) * Alexis Buettgen who participated and volunteered at the Disability and Work in Canada national conference (Ottawa, November 27-29, 2017) Details on how to apply for CRWDP financial support to attend conferences and training opportunities are available here: https://crwdp.ca/en/student Participants and Partners News I. Congratulations to Dr. Barb Neis who wan the 2017 Memorial University Paton Award. Named for the first president of Memorial University College, the Paton Award recognizes faculty who embody the university’s mission by demonstrating exceptional teaching, undertaking world-class research and sharing their knowledge and expertise widely. Find out more on the MUN 2017 Presidential Awards here: https://gazette.mun.ca/campus-and-community/presidential-accolades/ II. Our partner, the Canadian Institute for the Relief of Pain and Disability, has changed their name to Work Wellness and Disability Prevention Institute (WWDPI). The updated CRWDP partner webpage: https://crwdp.ca/en/partners/work-wellness-and-disability-prevention-institute III. Our partner, The Caledon Institute of Social Policy, discontinued its operations at the end of November 2017.  The annual Welfare in Canada report will continue to be produced by Maytree.  Future reports will be consistent in methodology to their earlier versions in order to ensure comparability and reliability.  Earlier editions of the Welfare in Canada reports, along with all other Caledon Institute papers, will be archived by Maytree and will be available at www.maytree.com. IV. New publications by CRWDP members: * Kosny A, Newnam S, Collie A. Family matters: compensable injury and the effect on family. Disabil Rehabil, 2017. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09638288.2017.1283450 * MacEachen E, Du B, Bartel E, Ekberg K, Tompa E, Kosny A, Petricone I, and Stapleton J. Scoping review of work disability policies and programs. International Journal of Disability Management. 2017; 12(e1):1-11. ?https://crwdp.ca/ZZQ * Oldfield M, MacEachen E, MacNeill M, and Kirsh B. 'You want to show you're a valuable employee': a critical discourse analysis of multi-perspective portrayals of employed women with fibromyalgia. Chronic Illness. 2017; [epub ahead of print]. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28661193 * Waxman D, (2017), Model of Successful Corporate Culture Change Integrating Employees with Disabilities, in Barbara M. Altman (ed.) Factors in Studying Employment for Persons with Disability (Research in Social Science and Disability, Volume 10) Emerald Publishing Limited, 2017, pp.155 - 180. http://www.emeraldinsight.com/doi/abs/10.1108/S1479-354720170000010007 V. Emile Tompa was interviewed for the Public Policy Forum study to provide an overview of the issues concerning chronic conditions in the workplace, and the development of public policy and interventions to assist those with chronic conditions. The report on this study is available here: http://www.ppforum.ca/sites/default/files/Condition%20Chronic%20Report-EN.pdf Opportunities I. Call for papers from Societies Journal The special issue “Social Participation and Human Rights” will be published in Societies and is now open to receive submissions of full research articles and comprehensive review papers for peer-review and possible publication. Guest Editors are Dr. Normand Boucher & Mr. Francis Charrier. Deadline for manuscript submissions is 1 April 2018. More information is available here: http://www.mdpi.com/journal/societies/special_issues/Social_Participation_and_Human_Rights II. 2018 WSIB Grants Program Competition Launch The Workplace Safety and Insurance Board (WSIB) grants competition is open to initial proposals for research studies and training initiatives to improve health and safety in the workplace, and for innovations to improve service in Ontario’s workplace compensation system. Initial proposal deadline is Tuesday, February 20, 2018. Please visit the website for detailed information about the program, priority areas, and application process: https://crwdp.ca/ZZX III. Funding Opportunity Health System Impact Fellowships for Doctoral Trainees and Post-Doctoral Fellows (from CIHR Institute of Population and Public Health). To view the details: https://crwdp.ca/ZZB Resources I. On November 28, 2017, the Mental Health Commission of Canada hosted a forum for federal, provincial, and territorial governments, researchers, community service providers, and people with lived experience to promote the exchange of ideas and promising practices to raise employment levels for people living with a mental illness. The goal of this day was to co-create actionable recommendations for government in the areas of disability and income supports, targeted employment and social enterprises, and supported employment that will be effective in reducing employment barriers for these individuals - The discussions report will be published on this page at a later date: https://www.mentalhealthcommission.ca/English/aspiring-workforce II. Discussion on Universal Disability Insurance in the report by the UNIFOR: https://www.unifor.org/sites/default/files/documents/document/universal_disability_insurance.pdf III. Young people with arthritis find disclosing their condition a challenge: IWH study. Dr. Arif Jetha recently looked into the experiences of young people with chronic conditions. And he heard from participants who faced difficult choices around whether or not to disclose their health conditions. His study, published in the journal Disability and Rehabilitation, explored the issues. Read what the study found: https://www.iwh.on.ca/at-work/90/young-adults-with-chronic-conditions-often-struggle-to-access-workplace-supports IV. People with disabilities face greater OHS vulnerability, according to IWH study. People with disabilities have a tough time getting hired, research elsewhere has shown. Now, a new IWH study suggests that, when they do find jobs, they may be more vulnerable to workplace health and safety risks than their peers without disabilities. The study used an occupational health and safety (OHS) vulnerability framework developed at IWH. It found low OHS empowerment and inadequate OHS practices and policies were more prevalent among study participants with disabilities than those without. To see your news/event in the next e-alert, or if you wish to unsubscribe, send an email to Kathy Padkapayeva 481 University Avenue, Suite 800 Toronto, Ontario M5G 2E9 T: 416-927-2027 E:info@crwdp.ca www.crwdp.ca 2