The Ontario Federation of Labour (OFL) is hoping to diminish the number of disabilities from occupational injuries in the province with its prevention program, Prevention Link, which it launched at the beginning of November.
With support from the Government of Ontario, Prevention Link is now the only comprehensive disability-prevention program in the province, according to its website. Prevention Link will focus on the link between primary and secondary prevention – the former involving prevention of disease or injury before they happen, the latter aiming to reduce the long-term effects of an injury or illness.
“Secondary-prevention services are crucial to ensuring safe and healthy workplaces for all workers,” OFL president Chris Buckley said in a press statement. “It has been a diligent, collaborative and persistent effort to secure support for Prevention Link, and we are proud to once again have a tangible disability-prevention program at work.”
An expansion of the Occupational Disability Response Team (ODRT), which has served for more than 25 years, Prevention Link aims to offer training, mentorship, outreach and advice for both employers and workers. The program intends to help injured workers return to their jobs sooner, through education and awareness aimed at those most at risk.
“Ontarians can be confident that the reputable and effective training and injury prevention resources we’ve long offered have been enhanced by the ODRT redesign,” Prevention Link executive director Rob Halpin said in his own statement.
In a Nov. 1 media release about the program, the OFL cited statistics from the Workplace Safety and Insurance Board, Ontario’s workers’ compensation authority. According to the Board, there were 212 claims for Ontario workers who had died from occupational diseases in 2015, as well as 229,000 registered claims for lost time from work-related injuries or illnesses during the same year. But the real numbers were likely higher, since there are hundreds of deaths from unreported diseases every year, the OFL claimed.
“It’s a thrill to deliver a program that will place increased emphasis on the links between primary and secondary prevention of occupational injury, illness and disease in workplaces,” said Halpin.
Prevention Link is already offering disability-response training workshops and classes. Its core curriculum has six levels beginning with rights and obligations and ending with occupational disease. Other courses available cover topics like work disruptions, disability principles, mental stress, hearing loss, work transition and more.
More information about Prevention Link is available at its website, at http://www.preventionlink.ca.