Celebrating the Past and Looking Forward: OHCOW Marks its 25th Anniversary

Recently, I had the honour of celebrating the Occupational Health Clinics of Ontario Workers (OHCOW) 25th anniversary at their event Celebrating the Past and Looking Forward. Our organizations have had a long-standing history of collaborating and sharing information and resources with the common goal to help Ontario workers stay safe on the job. I truly believe the synergy of our organizations has served workers successfully over the years.

To show our appreciation of our 20 year affiliation, I presented OHCOW with a plaque recognizing our partnership, and shared some of my personal thoughts and reflections of their organization. I believe each clinician; pioneer and tireless workplace safety advocate at OHCOW have provided our country with an immense amount of value. I especially saw this when CCOHS hosted a delegation from China a few years ago. We introduced the group to the staff at OHCOW and after reviewing their operations, the delegates returned to Chongqing and built a workers’ health clinic inspired by what they saw at the OHCOW offices. Now, tens of thousands of workers are receiving clinical services and counseling for occupational issues as a result of the OHCOW model.

Another reason to celebrate OHCOW
The event marked the official launch of the Mental Injury Toolkit (MIT) and the Measure Workplace Stress App. This special project was a collaborative effort between OHCOW and CCOHS to build a new smartphone application that provides a set of tools for workers to measure their level of workplace stress. It will also correlate the worker response input, highlight issues for focus, and provide direction for obtaining more information.

Congratulations to OHCOW on 25 years of commitment and caring and making a difference in the quality of Ontario workers’ lives.