July 2025: Chris McLeod, PWHS Director, and Lindsey Richardson, Associate Professor in the UBC Department of Sociology, are co-principal investigators on a successful CIHR project grant focused on reducing substance-use related harm among people working in construction and trades in BC. In the context of the ongoing, intractable challenges linked to drug use and drug-related harm, people working in construction and trades bear a disproportionate burden of this harm, and there is a lack of published, action-oriented research in this area. The work funded by this grant will fill critical research and knowledge mobilization gaps, working in close collaboration with workers, unions, people with lived and living experience of substance use, employers, and clinicians to make concrete progress towards reducing substance use-related harm and improving employment outcomes for people in the sector.
The funded research spans survey-based data collection among workers and union members to assess emergent issues around substance use, workplace policy and related harm, treatment barriers, and the impact of stigma; a process evaluation recruiting participants who have been referred to the medical monitoring system to identify ways to minimize occupational and health harm and prioritize stay at work and return-to-work supports; and the creation of administrative data cohort that links workers’ compensation claims, Ministry of Health, Ministry of Social Development, and other data to follow workers’ wellness and employment trajectories. Knowledge mobilization efforts will be targeted to clinicians, workers, employers, and unions.
Lindsey Richardson holds the Canada Research Chair in Social Inclusion and Health Equity and is Associate Professor in the UBC Department of Sociology and Research Scientist at the BC Centre on Substance Use. Chris McLeod is Associate Professor in the UBC School of Population and Public Health and Director of the Partnership for Work, Health and Safety. The team of co-applicants includes researchers from the BC Centre on Substance Use and BC Centre for Disease Control, representatives from trade organizations, clinicians across provincial health authorities and workers with lived experience.
