Total Worker Health®
What is Total Worker Health®?
Total Worker Health is defined as policies, programs, and practices that integrate protection from work-related safety and health hazards with promotion of injury and illness-prevention efforts to advance worker well-being.
The Total Worker Health (TWH) approach prioritizes a hazard-free work environment for all workers. It also brings together all aspects of work in integrated interventions that collectively address worker safety, health, and well-being. Traditional occupational safety and health protection programs have primarily concentrated on ensuring that work is safe and that workers are protected from the harms that arise from work itself. TWH builds on this approach through the recognition that work is a social determinant of healthexternal icon. Job-related factors such as wages, work hours, workload, interactions with coworkers and supervisors, and access to paid leave impact the well-being of workers, their families, and their communities. The long-term vision of the TWH program is to protect the safety and health of workers and advance their well-being by creating safer and healthier work.
NIOSH Total Worker Health® Affiliate Program
The mission of the NIOSH Total Worker Health (TWH) Affiliate Program is to advance worker safety, health, and well-being through non-funded collaborations with governmental and nonprofit organizations, including labor, education, training, and research organizations. The goal of the NIOSH TWH Affiliate Program is to:
- Increase the visibility, adoption, and impact of TWH approaches to advance the safety, health, and well-being of workers through NIOSH assistance to Affiliates.
- Attract and assist new collaborators to enrich and broaden TWH research and communication activities.
- Collaborate to enrich and broaden TWH practice and outreach efforts.
- Publicly recognize the contributions of the Affiliate organizations to the development of TWH research and practice.
ICHW became an Affiliate on July 22, 2016
