The COMPASS Pilot Study: A Total Worker Health(TM) Intervention for Home Care Workers

Details

• Personal Author:
  Elliot D ; Hess, Jeffery E. ; Mancini A ; Olson, Ryan ; Wipfli B ; Wright RR
• Description:
  Home care workers have an injury rate that is nearly four times higher than the US average and are at elevated risk for mental and physical health problems (BLS, 2010). These low-income workers, who are predominantly female and older than 40, assist the elderly and disabled with self-care and mobility in private homes. The work is stressful and caregivers regularly perform dangerous manual client transfers (Hess et al., 2007; Wipfli et al., 2012). Many home care workers are self-employed or employed by their client, and lack supervision and typical organizational support structures, such as safety committees or health promotion programs. Although supportive interventions developed for other caregiver populations improve wellbeing and knowledge (Sorenson et al., 2002), they have largely failed to address illness and injury prevention behaviors. No prior study has addressed the lack of occupational social support structures for home care workers from a Total Worker Health(TM) perspective. To address this, we are evaluating the effectiveness and sustainability of a new work structure intervention for home care workers. Our approach is to organize workers into neighborhood-based teams that meet regularly for education and social support. The COMPASS (Community of Practice and Safety Support) team curriculum integrates health promotion and protection topics, and uses our established scripted peer-led education methods (Elliot et al., 2007) as well as proven elements of social support groups for caregivers (Toseland et al., 1990). The current paper will report results from the COMPASS pilot study, which is being conducted prior to a randomized controlled trial of intervention effectiveness. [Description provided by NIOSH]
• Subjects:
  Community Health Services Home Care Services Occupational Health Safety
• Keywords:
  Community Health Home Health Care Injuries Injury Prevention Patient Handling Safety Education Total Worker Health TWH
• Publisher:
  American Psychological Association
• Document Type:
  Text
• Funding:
  Cooperative Agreement
• Genre:
  Abstract or Summary
• Place as Subject:
  Oregon ; OSHA Region 10
• CIO:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
• Topic:
  Workplace Safety & Health
• Location:
  North America
• Pages in Document:
  1
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:20053897
• Citation:
  Work, Stress, and Health 2013: Protecting and Promoting Total Worker Health(TM), The 10th International Conference on Occupational Stress and Health, May 16-19, 2013, Los Angeles, California. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association, 2013 May; :1
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  2013
• NORA Priority Area:
  Construction ; Healthcare and Social Assistance
• Performing Organization:
  Oregon Health & Science University, Portland
• Peer Reviewed:
  False
• Start Date:
  20110901
• Source Full Name:
  Work, Stress, and Health 2013: Protecting and Promoting Total Worker Health(TM), The 10th International Conference on Occupational Stress and Health, May 16-19, 2013, Los Angeles, California
• End Date:
  20260831
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:a2344c7c9416e5ed43b57ab151d92307a296d8cc3fc48433196ad473cb39b7114660fa94dafad6355e4eb5818673cae01b439bf418e454e683735c8e28484f34
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/216571/cdc_216571_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 155.38 KB ]