Keynote: Helping Workers Navigate Chronic Health Challenges and Build Long‑term Employment Stability
Keynote Summary
This presentation draws on research aimed at helping workers living with chronic physical and mental health conditions to manage their condition and better sustain employment. It highlights challenges that can arise when researchers adopt an advocacy agenda, the importance of gaining the perspectives of a range of individuals involved in the support process, and ways that support provision is currently changing in workplaces.
Speaker Biography
Dr. Monique Gignac is Scientific Director and Senior Scientist at the Institute for Work & Health in Toronto, Canada. She is also a professor at the University of Toronto’s Dalla Lana School of Public Health. Her research expertise is in the areas of health and social psychology, including health models of disability. Her research examines psychosocial factors like stress, coping, adaptation and communication, and their importance in understanding the impact of chronic diseases on the lives of adults across the life course. Of particular interest is research on workplace communication, privacy, support and accommodation needs among individuals living with chronic, episodic conditions. Her research program is strongly collaborative. She works with clinicians, epidemiologists, health economists, sociologists and health psychologists. Study designs in her research program span community health surveys, qualitative research, measurement design and evaluation, and analyses of population health datasets.
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.
Panelists
Dr Karen Walker-Bone, Director, Centre for Occupational and Environmental Health, Monash University, Australia
- Dr Walker-Bone trained in medicine in the United Kingdom. She specialised in rheumatology and was awarded a prestigious Arthritis Research UK (now Versus Arthritis) fellowship to complete a PhD focused on the epidemiology of neck and upper limb disorders in working aged adults. From there she developed a particular interest in the relationship between work and health. She migrated to Australia in 2022 to take up her new role as Professor of Occupational Rheumatology and Director of the Monash Centre for Occupational and Environmental Health. Her research focuses on musculoskeletal health in the workplace and she has broader interests in promoting health at work; mental health and work; women in the workplace; and older workers.
Dr Aamir Bharmal, Chief Medical Officer, WorkSafeBC, Canada
- Dr Bharmal is a dual-certified family and public health specialist physician who serves as Chief Medical Officer for WorkSafeBC, the provincial agency in British Columbia (BC) responsible for promoting the prevention of workplace injury and for rehabilitating those who are injured at work. At WorkSafeBC, he provides leadership on health care strategy, professional practice, and outcome-focused treatment pathways. He is passionate about injury prevention and the use of data to guide policy and practice. Prior to joining WorkSafeBC, he held senior public health leadership roles in BC including Medical Director at the BC Centre for Disease Control and Medical Health Officer with Fraser Health Authority.
Dr Gerald Méndez, Medical Board for Work Disability Assessment, Ministry of Labor and Social Security, Costa Rica
- Dr Mendez is a Senior Specialist in Occupational Medicine and a Professor at Tecnológico de Costa Rica. He combines his academic role with extensive clinical expertise at the Trauma Hospital of the National Insurance Institute (INS). As the sole public provider for work-related insurance in Costa Rica, the INS Trauma Hospital is the country’s centre of excellence for occupational medicine, where Dr Mendez manages complex workers’ compensation and occupational health cases. He specializes in the technical coordination of RTW processes for work-related injuries and illnesses, ensuring safe and efficient worker reintegration. He serves as the President of the National Medical Board for Work Disability Assessment at the Ministry of Labor and Social Security, President of the Costa Rican Association of Occupational Medicine, and the ICOH National Secretary (2024-2027) for Costa Rica.
Dr Joel Moody, Chief Prevention Officer and Assistant Deputy Minister, Ontario Ministry of Labour, Immigration, Training and Skills Development, Canada
- Dr Moody is Chief Prevention Officer and Assistant Deputy Minister at the Ministry of Labour, Immigration, Training and Skills Development in the Canadian province of Ontario. He leads the Prevention Division and is responsible for the oversight of Ontario’s Occupational Health and Safety Prevention System. He provides advice to the Minister on the prevention of workplace injuries and occupational diseases and on any proposed changes to the funding and delivery of services for the prevention of workplace injuries and occupational diseases. He works with the Workplace Safety and Insurance Board and the Health and Safety Associations and related stakeholders to advance the transformation of the occupational health and safety system to an evidence-based and outcome focused model to eliminate workplace injuries, fatalities, and illnesses in Ontario.
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.
Panelists
Dr Han Anema, Professor, Public and Occupational Health, Amsterdam UMC, The Netherlands
- Dr Han Anema is an occupational physician and Professor of Public and Occupational Health at Amsterdam University Medical Center. He conducts research in the areas of cancer treatment and quality of life and societal participation and health.
Dr Diana Cuervo Díaz, Principal Physician, National Disability Rating Board, Colombia
- Dr Diana Elizabeth Cuervo Díaz is an occupational health physician, specialist in social security law, and PhD in public health, with more than 25 years of experience in occupational health, disability evaluation, social security, and work disability prevention. She currently serves as a principal physician of the Colombian National Disability Rating Board (Ministry of Work) and as National Secretary for Colombia of the International Commission on Occupational Health (ICOH). Her professional work integrates occupational medicine, public health, disability management, social security systems, return-to-work processes, and prevention of work disability, with a strong focus on evidence-based, ethical, and human-centered approaches. She has participated in national and international academic initiatives related to occupational epidemiology psychosocial risks, mental health at work, disability prevention, occupational rehabilitation, and workers’ wellbeing.
Dr Marie-France Coutu, Professor, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, Université de Sherbrooke, Canada
- Dr Marie-France Coutu is a professor in the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences at the Université de Sherbrooke and the director of the Disability Management Program for workplace and insurance stakeholders. She holds a research chair in work disability funded by the Bombardier and Pratt & Whitney Canada foundations. Her research aims to bring together decision-makers from different sectors affected by work disability; equip rehabilitation professionals with the tools to manage absence and return to work; and understand what influences return to work, focusing particularly on the interaction between factors stemming from the various systems of work, compensation, and health, as well as the worker. Ultimately, she focuses on building consensus among stakeholders to develop a multi-component intervention to facilitate return to work.
Dr Ellen MacEachen, Director, School of Public Health Sciences, University of Waterloo, Canada
- Dr Ellen MacEachen is a professor and the director of the School of Public Health Sciences at the University of Waterloo. She is also an associate professor at the Dalla Lana School of Public Health and the Graduate Department of Rehabilitation Sciences at the University of Toronto, and a Senior Scientist (Adjunct) at the Institute for Work & Health. Her research examines the design and performance of work and health systems to identify how they can be improved and adapted to fast changing economic, social and technological environments of our global economy. She is particularly interested in international work disability policy and the health risks and opportunities of new forms of work (such as “sharing economy” gigs). Her research is informed by a sociological lens and is thus sensitive to complex interrelationships between individuals and broader contexts.
Dr Susan Peters, Associate Director, Center for Work, Health, and Well-being, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, USA
- Dr Susan Peters is the associate director of the Harvard Center for Work, Health, and Well-being and a senior research scientist at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. She received her Ph.D. in health sciences from the University of Queensland, Australia, and she is a trained occupational therapist with over 20 years of clinical expertise. She completed doctoral and post-doctoral training in health and rehabilitation sciences, environmental health, and social and behavioral sciences at the University of Toronto and Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. Dr. Peters’ research centers on the conditions of work for supporting worker well-being as a pathway for improved enterprise and business outcomes. Her research-to-practice approach emphasizes building organizational and leadership capacity; tailoring interventions to the realities of complex work environments and the future of work; and generating systems-level, actionable tools and resources for leaders, managers, workers, and practitioners.