Canada continues to face a public health crisis with opioid-related harms that has resulted in profound consequences for many Canadians. In response to this crisis, there are existing surveillance systems that have identified certain groups associated with opioid-related harms, however there is no information collected on the working population in Canada. Monitoring the opioid crisis in the Ontario working population is essential to understanding opioid-related harms in workers. This project, in partnership with the Institute for Work & Health (IWH), aims to establish a surveillance system for opioid-related harms in the Ontario workforce.

The objectives of this project are to:

1. Examine and monitor opioid-related adverse health events in the Ontario workforce by adapting and expanding the existing surveillance cohort of workers (the ODSS)

2. Characterize opioid-related harms among Ontario workers to:

1. Monitor and describe temporal trends of opioid-related hospitalizations and ED visits among workers since 2006, overall and by opioid type, associated harm, and harm intention of poisoning
2. Identify subgroups of workers at higher risk of opioid-related harms
3. Compare incidence rates of opioid-related harms in the ODSS worker cohort with those in the general population of Ontario overall and according to the demographic, nature of injury, and occupational characteristics of workers

3. Engage and partner with stakeholders to guide the project and disseminate findings using a variety of methods and communication channels to increase awareness of opioid-related harms among the working population in Ontario to relevant stakeholders

Visit the website for the Opioid-Related Harms among Ontario Workers project at opioidsandwork.ca