Source
Appl Occup Environ Hyg 2000 Feb; 15(2):171-181
Abstract
National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) researchers finished a health hazard evaluation at a sheltered workshop in 1999. (1) A sheltered workshop is a nonprofit business employing predominantly people with developmental disabilities and other chronic mental and physical impairments. The study’s findings suggested that sheltered workshop employees would benefit from increased management awareness and a more proactive approach to worker health and safety. A search for occupational health and safety information focusing on workers with developmental disabilities produced few results. Therefore, NIOSH researchers visited 10 additional sheltered workshops to learn more from workshop managers, staff members, and workers. From these visits, issues affecting the health and safety of workers with developmental disabilities were determined. Ten of the issues are discussed in this report. Recommendations for protecting workers with developmental disabilities and issues needing research are also given.
Keywords
Disabled-workers; Workers; Occupational-health; Mental-disorders; Mental-health; Mental-illness; Worker-health; Work-practices; Employees; Employee-health; Safety-monitoring; Safety-research; Safety-measures
Document Type
Journal Article
Source Name
Applied Occupational and Environmental Hygiene