Make Total Worker Health® About You and Your Employer

 

In 2016, AAOHN became a National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), “Total Worker Health® (TWH) Affiliate because we have a shared commitment to the values and goals of integrating protection from work-related safety and health hazards with promotion of injury and illness prevention efforts. TWH is exactly that and is defined as “policies, programs, and practices that integrate protection from work-related safety and health hazards with promotion of injury and illness prevention efforts to advance worker well-being.” It is a holistic approach to keeping workers safe and healthy.  It marries traditional safety initiatives with health promotion and wellness and many aspects of work that have previously been considered human resource issues, e.g., wages, hours of work, workload and stress levels, interactions with coworkers, and access to leave and healthful workplaces. The NIOSH TWH website has much more information, including how to build or strengthen a business case, simple steps if you need to get started, and tools to help you plan, assess or evaluate an existing program. You’ll find free on-demand webinars, information about their research agenda, publications and reports and information and the location of the TWH Centers of Excellence. 

Over the next months, AAOHN will be offering various education opportunities where you can learn more about TWH and hear best practices. Watch for webinars and seek out the TWH workshops and sessions at the AAOHN National Conferences. The Latest AAOHN News at www.aaohn.org will have announcements about TWH free webcasts and reports.  

Visit The Total Worker Health® In Action! e-Newletters. This is a great way to keep up to date with all the TWH changes and examples of promising practices. In Volume 5, Number 3 - August 2016, you can read about an AAOHN member, Deb Roy whose company L.L.Bean® has instituted a Safety Redesign Program in support of its aging workforce. We know there are other such stories that combine health and safety strategies and programming.

Check out Volume 6, Number 1 - March 2017, and scroll down to the article “From PPE to ping-pong: How an Oregon workers' compensation company leads the way to safer, healthier work” to read comments by Deb Fell-Carlson, one of AAOHN’s incoming Board members and the TWH Advisor for SAIF Corporation in Oregon.

We’d like to tell your stories and we’ll help you polish it so you can showcase it. Send your story about how you and your employer have integrating practices aimed to decrease work-related safety and health hazards with the promotion of injury and illness prevention to info@aaohn.org.