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Tuesday
May 12

Pre-conference Workshops

Join a growing movement to support young workers—not just to stay at work, but to thrive at work.

Date and Time

Tuesday May 12, 9:00 am – 4:00 pm

Price

Included in conference registration. $100 CAD (plus GST) for workshop-only registrants.

Description

Young adulthood is a critical phase in the life course, marked by rapid transitions—from education to employment, finding own housing, creating partnerships, and, for some, parenthood—and increasingly, by rising mental health concerns. Mental health problems are a leading cause of sickness absence and work disability among young adults, with long-term consequences for sustainable employment and societal participation. This workshop will address how the changing world of work intersects with the mental health of young adults, and how we can move from research to action.

Objectives

  • Build a shared understanding of how the psychosocial work environment affects young adults’ mental health;
  • Discuss the translation of empirical findings into practical, scalable interventions;
  • Foster cross-sectoral collaboration between researchers, policymakers, occupational and youth mental health professionals;
  • Stimulate new research and practice initiatives focused on sustainable, mentally healthy working lives for the next generation.

Agenda

Understanding the Problem: The first part of the workshop will focus on the current evidence base. Drawing on longitudinal and cross-disciplinary research, researchers will present studies on how psychosocial work conditions, such as job demands and decision latitude, shape internalizing and externalizing mental health problems in young adults over time. We will also explore cumulative exposures, sensitive periods, and the interplay between early life mental health and later work outcomes. Complementing these quantitative findings, qualitative research will offer insights into young adults’ lived experiences of work—why they work, what makes work meaningful, and how their working lives relate to identity, social belonging, and well-being. Together, these presentations will paint a rich picture of the challenges and opportunities in supporting mental health during early working life transitions.

From Knowledge to Practice: The second part of the workshop will adopt an interactive, co-creative format. Participants will engage in structured discussions on how to translate current knowledge into workplace interventions, policies, and practices that address the unique needs of young workers. Initial ideas/projects will be shared as examples, illustrating how organizations can adapt work environments to promote mental well-being. Theoretical frameworks will support participants in identifying intervention points and designing actionable strategies.

Speakers

Iris Arends is a senior researcher at the University Medical Center Groningen/University of Groningen and Director of Arbo Unie’s Knowledge Institute for Work and Health (Arbo Unie is a large occupational health service in the Netherlands). She aims to bridge the gap between research and practice and cultivate a healthy psychosocial work climate that sustains and enhances workers’ mental well-being.

Ute Bültmann is Professor of Work and Health at the University Medical Center Groningen/University of Groningen. She focuses on adding a life course perspective to work and health research, and on translating findings into relevant policy and practice measures to make a difference in achieving healthy working lives. Her research examines mental health and work challenges with a life course lens to support young workers transitioning into work and to facilitate a healthy working life.

Kathleen Dobson is Associate Scientist at the Institute for Work & Health in Toronto and Assistant Professor at the University of Toronto Dalla Lana School of Public Health. Her research focuses on understanding how Canadians experiencing mental health challenges engage with the labour force, including the factors that shape their employment opportunities and long-term work experiences.

Anita Minh is Assistant Professor at the Oregon Health and Science University – Portland State University School of Public Health. Her work examines the social and structural drivers of mental health inequities from childhood to old age, including the conditions of precarious employment and employment quality.

Malte van Veen has a background in psychology and epidemiology. In 2025 he obtained his PhD on the mental health of young workers from the Free University of Amsterdam. Currently Malte is working as a postdoctoral fellow at the University Medical Center of Amsterdam and as a researcher at the Dutch research institute TNO.

Apply a structured process for identifying strategies for change, developing effective workplace health interventions, and testing, adapting, and evaluating their impact.

Date and Time

Tuesday May 12, 9:00 am – 12:00 pm

Price

Included in conference registration. $100 CAD (plus GST) for workshop-only registrants.

Description

This interactive workshop introduces the Six Steps in Quality Intervention Development (6SQuID) framework, a practical, problem-solving tool for designing and evaluating public health interventions. Drawing on social science research and methods, 6SQuID provides a structured process for identifying strategies for change, developing effective interventions, and testing, adapting, and evaluating their impact. Since 2015, the framework has been widely applied across diverse public health challenges and settings in the UK and internationally, with outputs including peer-reviewed publications and a book written for both academic and non-academic audiences.

The workshop will focus on the application of 6SQuID in workplace contexts to support employee health and wellbeing, while also aligning with organizational priorities such as productivity and sickness absence. The structured process ensures workplace health ‘interventions’ (programs, policies, initiatives, services etc.) are not only well-designed but also rigorously evaluated.

The six steps of 6SQuID are:

  1. Define and understand the problem and its causes
  2. Identify modifiable and non-modifiable factors, and decide which to address
  3. Identify how to bring about change (theory of change)
  4. Identify how to deliver change (theory of action)
  5. Test and adapt the intervention on a small scale
  6. Collect sufficient evidence of effectiveness to justify rigorous evaluation

This short video provides a taste of the framework, and an example of where is has been successfully applied in a public health context: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RmL5wm9JB1o

Objectives

  1. Understand the core principles of intervention development and how they can be applied to support employee health and wellbeing.
  2. Understand how to choose and analyse a workplace health-related problem, identify the causes and differentiate between those that are modifiable and non-modifiable.
  3. Understand (broadly) how to go about developing a theory of change, theory of action and an action plan for a workplace health intervention.
  4. Understand (broadly) how to go about testing a workplace health intervention to understand if and how it is working.

Agenda

Short presentations will be combined with group work and discussion, with an emphasis on the initial steps of the 6SQuID framework. Participants will agree on a relevant ‘problem’ and work through the first two steps, breaking off into smaller groups to complete various tasks.

  • Introduction to 6SQuID and how it can be used to develop and evaluate workplace health interventions, including real-world examples.
  • 6SQuID Step 1: Short explanation followed by a group discussion to define and understand a relevant problem. Participants then work in small groups to build a fishbone diagram to identify the root causes of the problem.
  • 6SQuID Step 2: Short explanation followed by group discussions to identify modifiable and non-modifiable factors (causes) on the fishbone diagram.
  • 6SQuID Steps 3-6: Brief overview and real-world examples, including how to develop logic models to develop theories of change and action, using our templates.
  • Discussion on how participants can use 6SQuID in their own work, strategies for overcoming common challenges, and resources and take-home templates for continued use.

Speakers

This workshop will include a whistle-stop tour of workplace health intervention development training developed by Jillian Manner and John McAteer. The session will be delivered by Jillian Manner.

Jillian Manner is a Researcher and Consultant at the Scottish Collaboration for Public Health Research and Policy, University of Edinburgh. John McAteer is a Chartered Psychologist and Associate Fellow of the British Psychological Society. With a combined 30 years of experience working in public health, they specialise in supporting organisations to design and implement solutions across a wide range of issues related to wellbeing, while aligning with broader goals such as productivity, engagement, and reduced sickness absence. Drawing on extensive experience with government agencies, healthcare organisations, non-profits and private sector organisations across the UK, they help leaders turn complex evidence into practical, actionable strategies that deliver measurable impact. Jillian and John have recently launched a Social Enterprise, Outcome Shift, to continue to carry out this work on a larger scale.

Think proactively about how the field of work disability may change over the next 15 years and consider how to adopt a future focused approach to research and practice.

Date and Time

Tuesday May 12, 1:00 pm – 3:00 pm

Price

Included in conference registration. $100 CAD (plus GST) for workshop-only registrants.

Description

The world of work is changing—fast. Technological breakthroughs, a shifting climate, social fragmentation, and fluctuating global power dynamics are converging to redefine what it means to be safe, healthy, and supported on the job. Anticipating salient features of the future of work can be a challenging task for work disability scholars and practitioners. In this workshop we introduce the strategic foresight approach, a structured and systematic way of identifying signals of change in the external environment that may point to plausible futures and the associated risks and opportunities. Strategic foresight is a tool that can be used to future-proof research, policy, and programmatic planning activities.

Objectives

  • Introduce attendees to strategic foresight and discuss its importance to the field of work disability;
  • Discuss key signals of change that have the potential to impact the relationship between work and health in 2040 and shape future work disability practice;
  • Engage participants in a scenario building activity where they analyze emerging signals of change to envision the future of work and consider their implications for work disability.

Agenda

The workshop will begin with a presentation on strategic foresight and its utility to inform research and practice in the field of work disability. Next, findings from a recently completed international horizon scan of diverse evidence sources led by the Institute for Work & Health will be presented. Finally, attendees will participate in a facilitated visioning exercise where they will utilize the findings from the horizon scan to build scenarios of the future. Through the scenario-building process, attendees will engage with expected and unexpected changes to the working world and consider how they could directly or indirectly impact work disability management practice and inform critical research directions.

Speakers

Millie Baghela is an occupational hygienist by training with a Masters in Occupational and Environmental Hygiene from the University of BC. Currently, she serves as Manager of Research in the Research Services department at WorkSafeBC. She has a keen interest in strategic foresight, supported by a Certificate in Strategic Foresight from the University of Houston. As Manager of Research, she leads environmental scanning and strategic foresight efforts that help WorkSafeBC develop resilient, adaptable strategies that serve the needs of its diverse stakeholders.

Arif Jetha is Associate Scientific Director and scientist at the Institute for Work & Health and an associate professor at the University of Toronto. His research is aimed at understanding how sociopolitical, technological, environmental and economic changes that characterize the future of work affect the health and employment participation of vulnerable workers. He is specifically interested in the implications of artificial intelligence (AI) on the health, safety and well-being of workers, and is the director of the seven-year Partnership on AI and the Quality of work (PAIQ).

Gain practical insights into opioid stewardship and its role in reducing work disability.

Date and Time

Tuesday May 12, 1:00 pm – 4:00 pm

Price

Included in conference registration. $100 CAD (plus GST) for workshop-only registrants.

Description

The Opioid Self-Assessment Program (SAP) is a 3-hour accredited CME for opioid prescribers and learners across Canada. The aim is to increase knowledge of the Canadian Guideline for Safe and Effective Use of Opioids for Chronic Non-Cancer Pain. Participants receive immediate feedback about their knowledge base, identify areas for improvement, and create appropriate learning plans based on this assessment. This workshop is designed for clinicians, rehabilitation professionals, researchers, policymakers, trainees, and workplace health stakeholders engaged in chronic pain management, disability prevention, and return-to-work initiatives.

Assessment areas of the SAP program:

  • Optimization of non-opioid treatments
  • Titration of opioids and selection of an appropriate dose
  • Prevention of opioid use disorder and overdose
  • Switching (or rotating) from one opioid to another
  • Tapering opioids safely and effectively to the lowest possible dose
  • General knowledge about chronic pain and opioids

Objectives      

At the end of this session, participants will be able to:

  • Safely and effectively prescribe opioids for chronic non-cancer pain
  • Choose non-opioid alternatives for treating chronic non-cancer pain
  • Hold effective conversations with challenging situations related to opioid prescribing

Agenda

  • Introduction to the workshop
  • Pre-Test and Demographics
  • SAP section 1
  • Break
  • SAP section 2
  • Break
  • SAP section 3
  • Discussion
  • Post Test
  • Feedback

Speakers

Andrea Furlan is a physician-scientist and professor in the Department of Medicine at the University of Toronto. Her research focus is on the management of chronic pain. This includes diagnosis, treatment and education. She was the team leader who developed the Canadian Opioid Guideline in 2010, and she developed a tool and app to help physicians apply the guideline’s recommendations. She is Chair of ECHO Ontario Chronic Pain and Opioid Stewardship, a telementoring project that aims to teach clinicians in rural and underserved areas how to help patients with chronic pain to live a better life.

CPD Accreditation

Self-assessment. Participants who complete a pre- and post-assessment will be eligible for Royal College Section 3 credits.

Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada Section 3: Self-Assessment

This activity is an Accredited Self-Assessment Program (Section 3) as defined by the Maintenance of Certification Program of the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada, and approved by Continuing Professional Development, Temerty Faculty of Medicine, University of Toronto. You may claim a maximum of 3.0 hours (credits are automatically calculated).

College of Family Physicians of Canada also accepts credits from:

Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada (Royal College)

Members may claim Mainpro+ Certified or Certified Assessment credits for activities accredited through the Royal College Maintenance of Certification (MOC) program:

  • Accredited Section 1 MOC activities are eligible for Mainpro+ Certified credits and can be entered as one credit per hour.
  • Accredited Section 3 MOC activities are eligible for Mainpro+ Certified Assessment credits and can be entered as one credit per hour.

6:00 – 9:00PM: Welcome Reception at the Museum of Anthropology

  • Program begins at 6:30 pm
  • Museum welcome: Gwilyn Timmers, Museum of Anthropology
  • Conference welcome: Dr Chris McLeod, Associate Professor, UBC, Canada
  • University welcome: Dr Benoit-Antoine Bacon, President, UBC, Canada
  • Cultural performance: Tsatsu Stalqayu Coastal Wolf Pack
  • Territorial welcome: Elder Alec Dan, Musqueam Band

Wednesday
May 13

Conference Day 1

9:00 am: Welcome Remarks

  • Conference chair: Dr Chris McLeod, Associate Professor, UBC, Canada
  • ICOH WDPI Scientific Committee representative: Dr Alex Collie, Professor, Monash University, Australia
  • Government representative: The Honourable Jennifer Whiteside, MLA, Minister of Labour of British Columbia, Canada
  • WorkSafeBC representative: Dr Aamir Bharmal, Chief Medical Officer, WorkSafeBC, Canada

9:30 am: Opening Keynote: Helping Workers Navigate Chronic Health Challenges and Build Long‑term Employment Stability 

How do we help workers living with chronic physical and mental health conditions to manage their condition and better sustain employment? 

  • Chair: Dr Mieke Koehoorn, Vice-Dean, UBC Faculty of Medicine, Canada 
  • Speaker: Dr Monique Gignac, Scientific Director and Senior Scientist, Institute for Work & Health, Canada 
  • Followed by audience Q&A 

10:30 am: Networking Break

11:00 am: Concurrent Session 1

  • 1A: Trades & construction 1 | Nest 2306
  • 1B: Chronic disease | Nest 2309
  • 1C: Healthcare experience | Nest 2311
  • 1D: Symposium – Workplace stigma, discrimination, and disclosure | Nest Great Hall

12:30 pm: Lunch

12:45 pm: Journal of Occupational Rehabilitation Editorial Board Meeting (open to all) | Nest 2306

  • Chair: Dr Douglas Gross, Professor, University of Alberta, Canada 

1:30 pm: Concurrent Session 2

  • 2A: Trades & construction 2 | Nest 2306
  • 2B: Chronic disease & cancer | Nest 2309
  • 2C: No programming | Nest 2311
  • 2D: Symposium – Rethinking injury and RTW pathways for im/migrant and precarious workers | Nest Great Hall

3:00 pm: Poster Session 1 & Networking Break | Nest Great Hall and Foyer

4:00 pm: Concurrent Session 3

  • 3A: Precarious work | Nest 2306
  • 2B: Age & gender | Nest 2309
  • 2C: Measurement & validation | Nest 2311
  • 2D: Symposium – Hospital-based participation integrated care in Europe | Nest Great Hall

5:30 pm: Break – No programming

6:30 – 8:30 PM: Trainee and Early Career Researcher Meet & Greet | Nest 2301

Thursday
May 14

Conference Day 2

8:45 am: Welcome and Recap

  • Conference chair: Dr Chris McLeod, Associate Professor, UBC, Canada 

9:00 am: Panel 1 – Research and Data Informing Policy and Practice

This panel will explore how we can better use research and data to inform policy and practice, drawing on both researcher and policy maker perspectives, with Canadian and international representation. 

  • Chair: Dr Alex Collie, Professor, Monash University, Australia 
  • Panelist: Dr Karen Walker-Bone, Director, Centre for Occupational and Environmental Health, Monash University, Australia 
  • Panelist: Dr Aamir Bharmal, Chief Medical Officer, WorkSafeBC, Canada 
  • Panelist: Dr Gerald Méndez, Medical Board for Work Disability Assessment, Ministry of Labor and Social Security, Costa Rica  
  • Panelist: Dr Joel Moody, Chief Prevention Officer and Assistant Deputy Minister, Ontario Ministry of Labour, Immigration, Training and Skills Development, Canada 
  • Followed by audience Q&A 

10:30 am: Networking Break

11:00 am: Concurrent Session 4

  • 4A: Mental health & psychological injury 1 | Nest 2306
  • 4B: Novel & emerging technology | Nest 2309
  • 4C: Approaches to RTW 1 | Nest 2311
  • 4D: Symposium – More than just a colour? Studying and addressing racism in work disability management | Nest Great Hall

12:30 pm: Lunch

12:45 pm: ICOH WDPI Scientific Committee Meeting (open to all) | Nest 2306

  • Chair: Dr Alex Collie, Professor, Monash University, Australia

1:30 pm: Concurrent Session 5

  • 5A: Mental health & psychological injury 2 | Nest 2306
  • 5B: Accessibility & inclusion | Nest 2309
  • 5C: System design | Nest 2311
  • 5D: Symposium – Realist evaluation in the context of RTW research | Nest Great Hall

3:00 pm: Poster Session 2 & Networking Break | Nest Great Hall and Foyer

4:00 pm: Concurrent Session 6

  • 6A: Psychosocial work environment | Nest 2306
  • 6B: Health professionals | Nest 2309
  • 6C: Approaches to RTW 2 | 2311
  • 6D: Symposium – Inclusive perspectives on work disability prevention and return-to-work: a Latin American dialogue in Spanish | Nest Great Hall

5:30 pm: Break – No programming

6:30 – 9:00 PM: Conference Banquet in Jack Poole Hall, Robert H Lee Alumni Centre

Friday
May 15

Conference Day 3

8:45 am: Welcome and Recap

  • Conference chair: Dr Chris McLeod, Associate Professor, UBC, Canada 

9:00 am: Concurrent Session 7

  • 7A: Chronic disease: Covid | Nest 2306
  • 7B: Global perspectives | Nest 2309
  • 7C: Healthcare 1 | Nest 2311
  • 7D: Symposium – Knowledge transfer and exchange approaches for occupational injury and work disability prevention | Nest Great Hall

10:15 am: Networking Break

10:30 am: Panel 2: Reimagining WDPI after 20 years of research

Looking back on 20 years of WDPI research, this panel will explore what work disability prevention and integration (WDPI) means, the impact WDPI has had, and how the discipline will need to evolve to meet the current and future needs of workers and employers. 

  • Chair: Dr Doug Gross, Professor, Faculty of Rehabilitation Medicine, University of Alberta, Canada 
  • Panelist: Dr Han Anema, Professor, Public and Occupational Health, Amsterdam UMC, The Netherlands 
  • Panelist: Dr Diana Cuervo Diaz, Principal Physician, National Disability Rating Board, Colombia 
  • Panelist: Dr Marie-France Coutu, Professor, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, Université de Sherbrooke, Canada 
  • Panelist: Dr Ellen MacEachen, Director, School of Public Health Sciences, University of Waterloo, Canada 
  • Panelist: Dr Susan Peters, Associate Director, Center for Work, Health, and Well-being, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, USA 
  • Followed by audience Q&A 

12:00 pm: Lunch

1:00 pm: Concurrent Session 8

  • 8A: Remote work | Nest 2306
  • 8B: No programming | Nest 2309
  • 8C: Healthcare 2 | Nest 2311
  • 8D: Symposium – Rethinking disability, work reintegration and pension policies: A global perspective | Nest Great Hall

2:15 pm: Networking Break

2:30 pm: Patrick Loisel Awards: Top Ranked Student and Trainee Abstract Oral Presentations

  • Chair: Dr Alex Collie, Professor, Monash University, Australia 
  • Followed by audience Q&A 

3:30 – 4:00 PM: Closing Remarks

  • Conference chair: Dr Chris McLeod, Associate Professor, UBC, Canada 
  • ICOH WDPI Scientific Committee representative: Dr Alex Collie, Professor, Monash University, Australia