141st APHA Annual Meeting

In This section

288770
Putting evidence to work: Linking policy and practice in occupational health and safety capacity development

Monday, November 4, 2013

Tom Moibi, MEHS, JD , Department of Health Safety & Environment, Honeywell International Inc., Maplewood, MN
The challenges of Occupational Health and Safety (OHS) capacity development vary markedly across organizations and sectors. One of the major challenges facing the OHS community is creating a capacity development architecture built on solid evidence. To make it easier to capture cross-sectoral issues and opportunities, and to learn lessons across operations, OHS practitioners and leaders must shift the focus from project-based short-term technical fixes to programmatic approaches that go beyond building organizations and individual skills to strengthening institutions. For OHS capacity development to have sustainable results, strengthening stakeholder ownership, the efficiency of policy instruments, and the effectiveness of organizational engagement is critical. In this presentation, the author will argue that, although a significant body of evidence on OHS capacity development is being produced, the knowledge is poorly captured and managed. As a result, OHS capacity development practice and tools fail to take full advantage of lessons and experiences that could lead to better results. Addressing these challenges will lead to improved outcomes of OHS capacity development initiatives. The presentation will underscore the importance of treating OHS capacity development in organizations as a core objective and ensuring that functional support is operation-owned, results oriented, and evidence-based. The presentation will illustrate why organizations, at the corporate level, should strengthen their knowledge base and amplify their OHS capacity development framework to help operations a) prioritize capacity development activities; b) link institutional, organizational, and human capacity developments; and c) transform traditional capacity building tools to improve results.

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

Learning Objectives:
Discuss Occupational Health and Safety (OHS) capacity development strategies Identify strategies that will lead to improved outcomes of OHS capacity development initiatives Analyze the ways in which building OHS capacity to engage on health issues can increase stakeholders’ quality of life Describe political and structural elements that facilitate deliberative stakeholder engagement processes Identify the challenges and barriers to OHS capacity development Identify at least one practice or opportunity for cross-sector, organizational collaboration on worker health and safety

Keywords: Occupational Safety, Evidence Based Practice

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Qualified on the content I am responsible for because: Mr. Tom Moibi is a multi-disciplined Attorney at Law and Environmental Health and Safety (EHS) leader with a decade of experience in culturally diverse environments. He is an expert in integrating EHS management systems into business strategies, developing stakeholder capacity and providing complex regulatory & technical guidance to consistently deliver organizational value.
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: 3304.2: Poster Session: OHS Topics