229523 NIOSH WorkLife Initiative - is it health promotion, health protection, neither, or both?

Tuesday, November 9, 2010

Laura Punnett, ScD , Department of Work Environment, University of Massachusetts Lowell, Lowell, MA
Martin Cherniack, MD , Occupational and Environmental Medicine, University of Connecticut Health Center, Farmington, CT
James Merchant, MD, Dr P H , Department of Occupational and Environmental Health, College of Public Health, University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA
L. Casey Chosewood, MD , WorkLife Initiative, National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, Atlanta, GA
Glorian Sorensen, PhD, MPH , Center for Community-Based Research, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, MA
Tim Morse, PhD, CPE , ErgoCenter and Occupational and Environmental Health Center, UConn Health Center, Farmington, CT
Since 2005, NIOSH has a program on the integration of workplace wellness and occupational health and safety programs. Called the WorkLife Initiative (WLI), it has (co-)sponsored a variety of large and small meetings and currently funds three centers of excellence. The WLI Manager and the Directors of the WLI Centers of Excellence will discuss the rationale for these efforts and the obstacles and opportunities that have been identified to date. Attendees are invited to participate actively in the discussion about pros and cons of this program, including reflections on how they can relate these ideas to their own settings.

Learning Areas:
Chronic disease management and prevention
Implementation of health education strategies, interventions and programs
Occupational health and safety
Public health or related organizational policy, standards, or other guidelines
Public health or related public policy
Systems thinking models (conceptual and theoretical models), applications related to public health

Learning Objectives:
1) Discuss what constitutes an integrated approach to health promotion and occupational health and safety programs. 2) Assess barriers to integration of workplace health promotion and workplace health and safety programs. 3) Discuss strategies for overcoming challenges to workplace program integration. 4) Identify strategies and resources for promoting more and better programs that address worker health in a holistic fashion.

Keywords: Occupational Health Programs, Health Promotion

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Qualified on the content I am responsible for because: I am Principal Investigator on a NIOSH Center grant within which our work on this topic is being conducted.
Any relevant financial relationships? No

I agree to comply with the American Public Health Association Conflict of Interest and Commercial Support Guidelines, and to disclose to the participants any off-label or experimental uses of a commercial product or service discussed in my presentation.

Back to: 4375.0: Roundtable discussion: Value of workplace health promotion for OSH