• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
Injured Workers Online

Injured Workers Online

Working Together for Justice

  • Blog
  • Sign Up
  • About
  • Twitter
Working Together for Justice
  • Workers’ Compensation
    • History
    • Law Reform
    • Workers’ compensation bills
    • Chronic Pain Victory
    • Research and Education
    • Bancroft Institute
    • Meredith Conference: “No-Half Measures”
    • RAACWI
  • Issues
    • Appeals
    • Benefits
    • Experience Rating
    • Funding
    • Mental Health
    • Poverty
    • Return to Work
    • Stigma and surveillance
    • Universal Coverage
  • Community
    • Ontario Network of Injured Workers Groups (ONIWG)
    • Workers’ Comp Is a Right campaign
    • Injured Worker Groups
    • IW Speakers School
    • Injured Workers’ Stories
    • Organizing and Action
    • Arts & social justice
  • Events
    • Calendar View
    • RSI Awareness Day
    • Day of Mourning
    • Justice Bike Ride
    • Injured Workers Day
    • December demo
    • Labour Day – a workers’ festival
  • Media
    • In the News
    • Press Releases
    • Fact Sheets
    • Headlines on workers’ compensation
    • Videos
  • Resources
    • Law and Policy Submissions
    • Reports, Articles & Papers
    • Practical guides & booklets
    • IWHP Bulletins
    • Library
    • Find Legal Help
    • Links
Home / Blog / Diseases & Injuries / Covid-19 / Support groups like Peel Injured Workers Group offer a lifeline

Support groups like Peel Injured Workers Group offer a lifeline

July 8, 2021

As injured worker activist Catherine Fenech notes in the Brampton Guardian this week, work injury and illness can severely affect mental health in addition to the  physical impacts. For workers with permanent injuries in particular, depression, social isolation and loneliness are all too often accompanied by financial stresses and poverty. This is especially true for those up against Ontario’s Workplace Safety and Insurance Board barriers such as age limits on benefits and the practice of deeming (when benefits can be cut based on phantom wages from a job that is not available).

This is where support groups come in, such as the Peel Injured Worker group founded by Catherine in 2015. As well as making personal connections with others experiencing the same losses and difficulties, injured workers share resources to help with WSIB claims and accessing other services.

“Being part of a group showed me how important it was to help me move forward with my life. It gave me purpose.

COVID-19 however has created its own challenges for keeping connected when meetings have to move online. Injured workers may face technical or financial barriers (including limited access to WiFi or computers) or be unable to find the necessary private space. Despite these difficulties, through the pandemic and after, injured worker groups continue to provide critical mutual support.

(Read online article here – an expanded story will run next week on the front cover of the three Peel newspapers: The Brampton Guardian, The Mississauga News and The Caledon Enterprise )

Filed Under: Covid-19, In the News, Injured workers

Primary Sidebar

Latest Tweets

InjuredworkersonlineFollow

Injuredworkersonline
Retweet on TwitterInjuredworkersonline Retweeted
WorkersActionCentre@WorkersAC·
3 May

BREAKING: Our new report sets out an urgent agenda for decent work.

Workers have been on the frontlines working for low wages without adequate protections throughout the pandemic.

Now, it's time for change.

Read & share: http://workersactioncentre.org/frontlines

#Justice4Workers #OnPoli

Reply on Twitter 1521453400562483203Retweet on Twitter 152145340056248320397Like on Twitter 152145340056248320395
Injuredworkersonline@IWO_org·
22 May

"There's no WSIB" ...What’s in it for me?: A gig worker on having ‘no safety net for anything’ | http://TVO.org https://www.tvo.org/article/whats-in-it-for-me-a-gig-worker-on-having-no-safety-net-for-anything

Reply on Twitter 1528525055507955713Retweet on Twitter 15285250555079557132Like on Twitter 15285250555079557133
Injuredworkersonline@IWO_org·
20 May

Nine worst safety disasters in Canadian history - and changes they helped bring about | Canadian Occupational Safety https://www.thesafetymag.com/ca/topics/safety-and-ppe/nine-worst-safety-disasters-in-canadian-history/406554

Reply on Twitter 1527450992261881860Retweet on Twitter 1527450992261881860Like on Twitter 15274509922618818602
Load More...

Footer

Stay connected – get our blog updates
Copyright © 2022 Injured Workers Online
  • Accessibility
  • Terms of Use
  • Privacy

The information in this website is for educational purposes only. It is not a substitute for legal advice. For legal advice, see Find legal help