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American Public Health Association
133rd Annual Meeting & Exposition
December 10-14, 2005
Philadelphia, PA
APHA 2005
 
4186.0: Tuesday, December 13, 2005 - Board 6

Abstract #113153

California Worker’s Occupational Safety and Health Training and Education Program (WOSHTEP): A national model for training frontline workers in high hazard industries to promote illness and injury prevention in their workplaces

Laurie Kominski, MSW, Associate Director of Program Administration, UCLA Labor Occupational Safety & Health (LOSH) Program, Hershey Hall, P.O. Box 951478, Los Angeles, CA 90095-1478, 310 794 5992, lauriek@ucla.edu and Laura Podolsky, Labor Occupational Safety and Health Program, UCLA School of Public Health, Hershey Hall, PO Box 951478, Los Angeles, CA 90095-1478.

California has an exciting opportunity to serve as a national leader in worker protection and injury and illness prevention. Workers' Compensation reform legislation passed in 2002 included a provision to create a fund to establish a Worker Health and Safety Training and Education Program (WOSHTEP). Financed by an annual assessment on insurers paid out indemnity claims, it is administered by the State's Commission on Health and Safety and Workers' Compensation (CHSWC). WOSHTEP is designed to train frontline Worker Occupational Safety and Health (WOSH) Specialists in high hazard industries to take leadership roles in promoting health and safety back in their workplaces. Also established under the legislation is a labor-management Advisory Board. Since July 2003, CHSWC has contracted with the UCLA Labor Occupational Safety and Health (LOSH) Program and the Labor Occupational Health Program (LOHP), UC Berkeley, to conduct needs assessments, develop and implement a 24-hour curriculum in English and Spanish, compile a Multilingual Health and Safety Resources Guide, develop resource center libraries that provide information and technical assistance to support trained WOSH Specialists and WOSHTEP trainers, develop a small business alternative training model, and design a training-of-trainers course and apprenticeship to initiate a statewide network of trainers that includes community colleges and other organizations. This poster will describe and analyze the aforementioned program components including a preliminary evaluation of its impact -- successes and obstacles encountered -- with diverse worker populations in a variety of workforce settings.

Learning Objectives: Employers, labor, educators, insurers, governmental agencies, and community-based organizations will be able to

Keywords: Workplace Safety, Training

Related Web page: www.losh.ucla.edu/woshtep/index.html

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

I wish to disclose that I have NO financial interests or other relationship with the manufactures of commercial products, suppliers of commercial services or commercial supporters.

Occupational Safety and Health Topics

The 133rd Annual Meeting & Exposition (December 10-14, 2005) of APHA