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Invitation to Participate in the California Local Organizing Committee

Also see our pages on LOC Participants, LOC Meeting Minutes and Panels.
 
California Colleagues,
 
As many of you know the 2013 Work Stress, and Health (WSH) Conference, co-sponsored by the American Psychological Association (APA), the Society for Occupational Health Psychology (SOHP), and the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) will be held in Los Angeles May 16-19th 2013 at the Westin Bonaventure Hotel and Suites.  The conference title is Work, Stress, and Health 2013: Protecting and Promoting Total Worker Health. The broad goal of this year’s conference is to highlight the concept of Total Worker HealthTM – a new approach to safeguarding the health and safety of workers. In accordance with this conference theme and in addition to usual conference topics (see below), the conference will give special attention to:
 
– Case reports and controlled studies on the effects of integrated health protection and health promotion interventions;
– Studies investigating the joint contribution of occupational and non-occupational factors to health and safety problems facing workers today;
– Strategies and best practices for implementing and evaluating integrated or holistic prevention programs;
– Merits, challenges, future directions, etc., relating to integrated prevention strategies;
– Training needs in order to advance research and practice relating to Total Worker HealthTM.
 
More information about the conference is available at http://www.apa.org/wsh/
 
The CSE has been asked by the conference planners to help organize a Local Organizing Committee (LOC). The charge to the local organizing committee is open-ended and below is a potential list of things to do that have been suggested by Gwen Keita, Ted Scharf and Wes Baker. 
 
This meeting gives us a wonderful opportunity to focus local, state and national attention on issues of occupational health and safety confronting Californians. 
 
We are planning several conference related activities and will use these to build a state-wide coalition of interested persons committed to improvements in occupational health in California.
 
Possible activities for the next year include:
 
                1) Identifying the occupational health needs of California now and for 2020
                2) Develop panels for inclusion in next year’s conference including:
                         A) Labor views on the workplace and occupational health
                         B) Minority needs
                         C) An occupational health agenda for 2020
                         D) A debate over Total Worker Health (the conference theme) and the best ways to introduce change at the workplace
                3) Expand and develop a network of individuals and companies committed to positive changes in California.
                        A) Examining the impact of austerity measures on California Occupational Health
                4) Work on items from the list below suggested by APA/NIOSH
 
We have held meetings in Southern California and  Northern California in conjunction with the California Work and Health Study Group to discuss these possibilities (see LOC Meeting Minutes). 
 
Please get back to me with your thoughts about all this and your interests.
 
Peter Schnall and Marnie Dobson for the CSE 
 _________________________________________________________
 
Below is the list of areas that the conference planners have suggested that they could use help. Many of these complement the agenda suggested above.
 
1. Contact with UCLA, specifically the Education and Research Center, and the Center for Occupational and Environmental Health.
2. Contact with other departments at UCLA.
3. Contact with other California universities and colleges where you may know interested colleagues.
4. Assistance in establishing Continuing Medical Education credits for sessions at the conference (APA in Washington, D.C., handles CE credits in psychology).
5. Solicitation of local organizations that may be willing to contribute to the conference, for example by sponsoring a special session or reception (because of NIOSH involvement, we have to be extremely careful about what contributions the conference is able to accept).
6. Identifying inexpensive venues for a reception in downtown LA, and options for entertainment at the reception (APA has a small amount of money that it is able to allocate for such a reception from conference fees).
7. Assistance in arranging Spanish-English-Spanish translation for a few, selected sessions at the conference.
8. Assistance with contacting local media to promote the conference, and with featured papers and sessions.
9. Planning student-focused activities at the conference as well as local entertainment, in particular for the SOHP grad students in attendance.  The conference has a student coordinator and we would ask that one or more students from your program work with the conference student coordinator on these activities.
10. Recruiting student volunteers for the conference; APA offers a conference fee waiver for students who provide conference assistance for a designated number of hours (not usually a very high number).
11. Help arranging for brief appearances by local dignitaries at the conference and advice on this matter as appropriate.
12. Planning special sessions or receptions featuring local OHP-related activities.
13.  Assistance with the opening and closing conference plenary sessions to be certain that local contributions are recognized.
To accomplish any of this, let alone all of this will require a great deal of help from all of us in California interested in a successful conference next year. 
__________________________
 
List of key conference topics –
 
01.   Total Worker HealthTM: Effects of integrated (health protection plus health promotion) interventions, including both health/safety and organizational (e.g., economic, productivity) outcomes; The contribution of occupational and non-occupational factors to health and safety problems in today’s workplace (e.g., stress and mental health, obesity); Strategies and best practices for implementing and evaluating integrated prevention programs; Future challenges and directions relating to integrated prevention strategies; Training needs to advance research and practice relating to Total Worker HealthTM .
 
02.   Economic Issues and Concerns: Influence of the economy on management and employment practices, the organization of work, job security, and income disparity; Economic consequences of stressful working conditions and stress-related disorders for employers, employees, and society at large, including costs of illness, injury, disability, and organizational productivity and performance losses; Economics of stress prevention and workplace interventions, including economic barriers to their implementation.
 
03.   Best Practices in Creating Healthy Workplaces: Organizational, individual, and multilevel interventions; Policy and legislative developments; Organizational learning; Corporate social responsibility; Program evaluation studies; Model programs; Practitioner toolkits; Evidence-based practice.
 
04.   Collaborative and Participatory Approaches: Labor–management initiatives; Government–labor–business–university community partnerships; National and international collaborations.
 
05.   Workplace Diversity, Minority and Immigrant Workers, Health Disparities : Differential exposures and susceptibilities; Race/ethnicity-related stressors; Stress and immigrant status; Workplace multiculturalism; Culturally-tailored prevention and intervention programs; Cultural competencies.
 
06.   Workplace Mistreatment: Sexual harassment; Violence by customers, clients, patients, coworkers, etc.; Incivility; Violence prevention programs; Personal and organizational responses; Characteristics of perpetrators and victims; Bullying; Discrimination (e.g., gender, age, race/ethnicity, disability).
 
07.   Changing Employment Arrangements: Contract and temporary work; Self-employment; Under- and over-employment; Job insecurity; Psychological contracts; Part-time work.
 
08.   Human Resource Management and Benefits: Health, pension, and other benefits; FMLA [Family Medical Leave Act] issues, disability benefits; Pay equity and discrimination; Workers’ compensation programs; Return to work; Job accommodations.
 
09.   Work Scheduling: Shift work; Overtime/extended hours of work; Flexible/compressed schedules; Schedule design; Telecommuting.
 
10.   Work, Life, and Family: Work-life balance; Work-family conflict; Child and dependent care; Formal and informal family supports; Positive spillover; Intimate partner violence.
 
11.   Organizational Practices: Lean production; Downsizing and resizing; Globalization; Outsourcing; Continuous improvement; Process reengineering; Emerging technologies.
 
12.   Job and Task Design: Worker control; Work pace and work overload; Emotional labor; Physical demands.
 
13.   Social and Organizational Environment: Organizational climate and culture; Social support; Supervision and leadership; Group dynamics; Communication.
 
14.   High Risk Jobs and Populations: Younger and older workers; Hazardous work environments; High-risk occupations (e.g., agriculture, construction, emergency responders, health care, manufacturing, military, mining, transportation).
 
15.   Traumatic Stress and Resilience: Assessment, prevention, mitigation, and treatment of traumatic stress; Resilience; PTSD; Psychological first aid; Essential workers and emergency response; Ability and willingness to report to work.
 
16.   Psychological and Biological Effects of Job Stress: Depression and stress; Musculoskeletal, cardiovascular, and immune system function; Gender-related health concerns; Obesity; Alcohol and substance abuse; Physiological and psychological pathways to health outcomes; Burnout; Suicide.
 
17.   Sleep, Fatigue, and Work: Effects of work schedules on sleep; Sleep disorders and medications; Health and productivity implications of sleep disruptions.
 
18.   Aging and Work Stress: Job design for aging workers; Work capabilities and limitations; Attitudes toward aging workers; Implications of an aging workforce; Job retention and retraining; Disability management and accommodations; Health benefit implications.
 
19.   Health Services and Health and Productivity Management: Health promotion; EAPs [Employee Assistance Programs]; Vocational rehabilitation; Career and work adjustment counseling; Return to work; Disability management; Stress management; Integrated prevention models.
 
20.   Safety Climate, Management, & Training: Management commitment to safety; Safety motivation and leadership; Safety communication; Hazard identification and elimination; Barriers to eliminating or mitigating workplace hazards; Safety climate and culture.
 
21.   Professional and Educational Development: Graduate and undergraduate training in Occupational Health Psychology; Teaching innovations; Employee training programs; Career development programs.
 
22.   Theoretical and Conceptual Issues in Job Stress: Personal, organizational, and cultural antecedents of stress; Moderators of stress-outcome relationships; Measurement of stress; Theoretical developments.
 
23.   Research Methodology: Innovative research designs; Mixed-method research; Multidisciplinary research; Measure development; Case studies; Econometric analysis; Culturally-competent methods.
 
24.   Prevention / Intervention Methods and Processes: Field intervention design; Engaging organizations in safety and health issues; Barriers to safety and health initiatives; Gaining access to organizations; Disseminating research findings to organizations; Intervention evaluation methods and standards; r2p (research-to-practice).
 
25.   Global Concerns and Approaches: Surveillance strategies, methods, and programs; Job stress, risk factors, and interventions; Government and NGO initiatives; National policies and guidelines; International networks and collaborations.
 
26.   Positive Psychology and Engagement in the Workplace.
 
27.   Individual Factors: Personality; Coping styles.
 
28.   Job Attitudes, Turnover, & Retention: Attraction; Withdrawal intentions and behaviors; Turnover; Motivation; Presenteeism; Absenteeism; Commitment; Organizational citizenship behaviors.
 
29.   Emerging Risks, Opportunities, and Issues in Work, Stress, and Health.
 
 

 

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