title: The Perils of Integrating Wellness and Safety and Health and the Possibility of a Worker-Oriented Alternative.
abstract: Integration of workplace wellness with safety and health has gained momentum on the initiative of the state allied with a segment of large employers and some health and safety professionals. Integration has a dual potential: to fundamentally reshape occupational health in ways that profoundly benefit workers, or to serve neoliberal corporate goals. A focus on the workplace and the ways work and health interact broaden the definition of a work-related injury or illness and emphasize and challenge the employer decisions that create hazards and determine risk. However, the implementation of integration is taking place in a context of corporate dominance and the aggressive pursuit of a neoliberal agenda. Consequently, in practice, integration efforts have emphasized individual worker responsibility for health and fail to actually integrate wellness with safety and health in a meaningful way. Can an alternative be envisioned and pursued that realizes the promise of integration for workers?
authors: Occupational Health Clinical Center, SUNY Upstate Medical University, Syracuse, NY, USA laxm@upstate.edu.
authors: Michael B
authors: MB
authors: Lax
mesh_terms: D033161:Government Regulation; D006293:Health Promotion / Q000458:organization & administration; D006304:Health Status; D006801:Humans; D007750:Labor Unions / Q000458:organization & administration; D009314:National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, U.S.; D016272:Occupational Health; D011057:Politics; D062486:Public Health Surveillance; D012449:Safety; D014481:United States; D017132:Workplace / Q000191:economics / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence / Q000458:organization & administration*
keywords: integration of worksite health promotion and health protection; total worker health; worksite wellness