Work Wellness and Disability Prevention Institute

Our Mission

The Work Wellness and Disability Prevention Institute (WWDPI) is a global centre of excellence with a mandate to create and sustain work wellness, prevent disability, eliminate impairment-related job loss, and worklessness for those with, or at risk of, chronic and episodic health-related challenges​. A primary goal is to reduce the gap between what is known from high quality research and what is done in practice. In 2017 the organization changed its name from the Canadian Institute for the Relief of Pain and Disability to Work Wellness and Disability Prevention Institute.

Our Values

Collaboration:

We are committed to working together to share the latest research and information on work wellness and disability prevention.

Empowerment:

Knowledge is our greatest power. We believe in sharing research, tools, and resources to improve best practices in employee health and business health.

Compassion:

Our growth is only limited by our ability to reach out to another. Individual and organizational change is difficult.  We are committed to the utilization of current evidence to support positive individual and organizational change.

Integrity:

Our institute is built on trust and transparency. We strive to act ethically and bring credibility to all our work.

Our Goals

To eliminate job loss and prevent worklessness, WWDPI provides the following programs and services:

• Needs Assessment Engages academic, business, labour, health professionals, government and other partners to identify high-priority real world challenges, and collaboratively creates evidence-informed strategic action plans to address these needs.
• Strategic Planning Hosts and participates in strategic planning activities with government, academics, business and labour leadership, health professionals, the public and private sectors, workers and vulnerable populations, its' Board of Directors, as well as its members and users of its programs and services to establish priorities, funding and actions plans to eliminate job loss and prevent impairment-caused worklessness.
• International and National Collaboration Fosters international and national collaboration to eliminate unnecessary duplication of effort and to build a core up-to-date repository of research and practical resources to facilitate the application of evidence-based interventions to prevent work disability and curricular renewal across fields and disciplines.
• Knowledge Synthesis Conducts and disseminates findings from research syntheses to produce reports, guidelines, toolkits and educational and curricular resources relevant to private/public sectors, professional bodies, business and labour organizations, educators, workers and vulnerable populations, and the general public.
• Building Research Capacity and Academic Community Partnerships Creates partnerships between academic and community stakeholders to strengthen research capacity and ensure research meets high priority needs of stakeholders. This includes facilitating research to practice as well as learning from stakeholders' successes and facilitating rigorous evaluation. An important priority is implementation research to identify best practices in facilitating individual and organizational change.
• Educational Programming in collaboration with its partners, WWDPI summarizes knowledge from evidence-based research and provides practical guidance through the delivery of online programs, conferences, and by supporting curricular development and renewal.
• ​Health and Work Productivity Portal (HWP) To operationalize the HWP, an online collaborative platform to identify, translate and disseminate credible research, educational resources and toolkits, we are seeking investment.

Why we became involved with the CRWDP?

Work is a social determinant of health. As a transdisciplinary project, CRWDP provides an opportunity for researchers (from many different disciplines), community organizations, and decision-makers to work together to get a much broader understanding about the many factors that contribute to disability in the Canadian context. The collection and aggregation of multiple sources of data will provide a more complete picture of the challenges and opportunities to prevent and mitigate the negative consequences of disability, that limits people’s participation in the work force. The new knowledge gained by this unique collaboration supports the creation of an evidence-informed more coordinated approach to address national and provincial barriers that negatively impacts work participation and quality of life for people with disabilities. Research arising from this project following peer-review will make an important contribution to the Health and Work Productivity Portal project.