We are excited to share with you that the Oregon Healthy Workforce Center (OHWC) has again been funded by NIOSH, joining 5 other funded centers! The OHWC was first funded in September 2011 as the fourth Total Worker Health Center of Excellence. In this new round of funding, our Center joins the previously funded Center for Work, Health, & Well-Being Center (Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health), Center for the Promotion of Health in the New England Workplace (University of Massachusetts-Lowell and University of Connecticut), Healthier Workforce Center of the Midwest (University of Iowa); and new centers Rocky Mountain Center for Total Worker Health (University of Colorado), and Center for Healthy Work (University of Illinois-Chicago).

The Total Worker Health (TWH) approach advocates for a holistic understanding of the factors that contribute to worker well-being. Scientific evidence now supports that risk factors in the workplace can contribute to health problems previously considered unrelated to work.

Here in Oregon, the OHWC is housed at the Oregon Institute of Occupational Health Sciences at OHSU, with collaborating institutions Portland State University, Labor Education Research Center at the University of Oregon, and Kaiser’s Center for Health Research. We are extra lucky that our partner, SAIF Corporation, is recognized by NIOSH as a Total Worker Health Affiliate.

Stay tuned to learn more about our new research. Have you been following our previously funded research? We are pleased to announce our new Toolkit Kiosk webpage. Visit the page and download toolkits that have demonstrated positive changes in learning and behavior. We’d love to hear what you think of them!

Resources:
NIOSH Total Worker Health
OccHealthSci Topic: Total Worker Health and Well-being
Safety & Health Magazine article on Total Worker Health funding