Lawson Research receives more than $65 million to study workplace injuries

A multi-million-dollar investment for St. Joseph’s Health Care to help injured workers was announced today. CTV's Bryan Bicknell was there.

Workers injured on the job have a better shot at a quicker recovery thanks to a multi-million-dollar investment announced Friday at Parkwood Hospital, St. Joseph’s Health Centre.

“Our goal is to reduce injuries in the first place. But when people come into our system, it’s critically important that we get them back to work as quickly as we can, but as safely as we can. The longer people are off, the worse the outcome is for everybody,” explained Workplace Safety Insurance Board President and CEO Jeffery Lang.

Lang was on hand to announce a WSIB grant of $65.75 million dollars over 10 years to Lawson Research Institute at St. Joseph’s Health Care.

“They’ve been doing work for us for decades and decades, and the results have been outstanding. That’s why I’m so proud to be standing here today to announce that WSIB is committing $65 million to the Lawson Research Institute here at St. Joe’s,” said Lang to the crowd, before receiving a standing ovation.

The funding represents the single largest investment ever made by WSIB Ontario, said St. Joseph’s Health Care Foundation President and CEO Michelle Campbell.

“And it is also the single largest non-government health research investment our city and region has ever seen,” said Campbell.

The investment is being used to establish the first-in-Canada Occupational Injury Prevention and Treatment Network.

Much of the focus will include mental health conditions and musculoskeletal injuries, said Lisa Porter, vice president of research and scientific director at St. Joseph’s Health Care.

“These are things that affect your soft tissues. You know, like the kind of strain injury. That affects about 27 per cent of the Canadian workforce. Chronic pain affects about one in five Canadians. And chronic pain is really something that prevents people from coming back. And then mental health. Mental health is something that’s on the rise,” Porter explained.

According to WSIB, occupational injuries and illness account for nearly 250,000 claims in Ontario every year, with benefit payments of about $2.5 billion.

“All of us as employers, we have an obligation to the wellness of our workforce,” said Roy Butler, president and CEO of St. Joseph’s Health Care. “This investment by the WSIB today will allow us to do research into better ways to prevent injuries from happening in the first place, but then when an injury does occur, trying to reduce the burden of that.”