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Research priorities
Generally, we consider projects that fall within WorkSafeBC's mandate of:
- Occupational injury and disease prevention
- Fair compensation
- Successful rehabilitation and return-to-work
Specific research priorities for the program are grouped under the following five themes:
- Occupational disease, injury and health services
- Intervention research
- Compensation, disability management and return-to-work
- Changing nature of work and work environment
- Transferring research knowledge to the workplace
Within the general priorities noted above, the Board of Directors has identified a list (shown below) of specific issues of concern. The list includes the priority items from 2007, but is expanded to include high risk accident types (special funding), compensation/rehabilitation issues relating to the assessment of prosthetic devices, the rights of seasonal agricultural workers under the Workers Compensation Act , and claim and injury information on workers of marginal populations.
2008 Research Priorities
Reducing the frequency of accident types that result in large numbers of serious injuries1
- Fall to lower level
- Struck by object
- Fall on same level
- Caught or compressed by equipment or object
- Struck against object
Societal change in occupational health and safety
- Influencing general attitudes to workplace safety
- Changing high risk behaviours
Emerging occupational diseases
- Infectious diseases
- Work-relatedness of neurological diseases
Compensation/Rehabilitation issues
- Evidence-based treatment or management of chronic pain (including cognitive behavioral therapy)
- Assessment of whether the current approach to compensation adequately reflects the impact of chronic pain on workers' earning capacity
- Employability assessments — six-month follow-up to determine the outcome for workers
- The impact of disability management companies on claims and return to work
- To what extent are serious work-related injuries, diseases and deaths under-reported?
- Why do people with asbestos-related illness not file claims?
- To what extent are work-related fatalities, as recorded by hospitals and vital statistics, relfected in WorkSafeBC data?
- Are work-related injury rates among ethnic minorities in B.C. proportional to their representation in the workforce?
- What impact does the survival of a serious (non-permanent disability) work-related injury have on subsequent claims experience?
- Assessment of prosthetic devices – comparative functional outcomes
- Are seasonal agricultural workers aware of and acting on their rights under the Workers Compensation Act and corresponding regulations?
- Do injury and claim rates among workers with temporary work visas in B.C. compare differently with the general population of workers in B.C.?
- Are there differences in the population of those whose claims are initially denied from the population of those whose claims are initially accepted?
Prevention issues
- Implications of key shifts in the economy (e.g. changing employment relationships) for the workers' compensation system in B.C.
- Measurement of safety culture/climate or other leading indicators of safety at the firm, sector, or economy-wide level
- Evaluation of prevention initiatives at the sector or economy-wide level
- Joint Health and Safety Committees — compliance and effectiveness
- Do workers with first-aid certificates have fewer work-related injuries?
- Substance abuse and its impact on safety — the effectiveness (or not) of mandatory testing
1Special funding is being made available for projects addressing this priority