ONPHA's Health and Safety Guide

ONPHA's 2017 Health and Safety Guide is an easy-to-use, practical resource designed to help non-profit housing providers create an effective health and safety plan and improve their organization's practices, while helping to ensure they are meeting their legal obligations under the Occupational Health and Safety Act. The comprehensive Guide includes:

• A customizable template health and safety manual that can be easily adapted and applied within your own organization
• 25 unique, safe-work procedures to guide you through the routine and unexpected scenarios that housing providers encounter in their work
• 25 easily adaptable forms for day-to-day use - saving you time and guesswork
• Practical tools and resources designed to help you easily meet your legal responsibilities to protect the health and safety of your employees

Purchase the Guide and accompanying resources in the ONPHA store.

Health and Safety InfoONs

ONPHA's InfoON series tackles the problems and challenges housing providers face the most, outlining best practices, practical approaches and solutions. These straight-forward resources are a great place to start to learn about key areas of housing management, and they are available exclusively to housing members at no cost. Have a look below at our health and safety related InfoONs.

Housing member access only:

• Health and Safety Programs for Housing Providers: Outlines basic health and safety requirements that housing providers must be aware of.

• Health and Safety and Canada's Criminal Code: Outlines the implications of Bill C-45 on housing providers as it relates to health and safety. Bill C-45 facilitates prosecution and sentencing of organizations that don't take reasonable measures to protect the health and safety of workers and the public. 

• Understanding Workplace Safety and Insurance Premiums: Learn how and why the Workplace Safety and Insurance Board (WSIB) classifies employers the way they do, and why it's important to be classified correctly.

• Early and Safe Return to Work: How to facilitate an employee's return to work after a workplace injury. 

• Occupational Health and Safety Act, Under Five Employees: Helping small housing providers (with under five employees) meet their legislated health and safety requirements. 

• Confined Spaces: Guidance on the requirements of the confined space provisions in the Regulation for Confined Spaces (O. Reg. 632/05) under the Occupational Health and Safety Act.

PSHSA Resource Portal

PSHSA is committed to creating safe work environments and promoting healthy workers in Ontario. By staying ahead of emerging needs, knowledge and trends, and developing forward-thinking occupational health and safety solutions, we are continuously innovating to identify better ways to educate, inform and inspire better workplaces.

The Resource Catalogue offers a variety of downloadable tools and resources, such as checklists, fast facts, handbooks, posters, resource manuals, workplace tools, and brochures.

 Click here to access the PSHSA Resource Portal

Articles

The following blog posts focus on health and safety concerns for non-profit housing providers. Browse some of the articles below for quick reads on important health and safety topics. 

• The lone worker: Find out what the law says about working alone and how to protect yourself and others.

• Dealing with 'sharps' in your community: Do you know what to do when you find a needle, syringe or other 'sharp' in your community?

• Act now to prevent future workplace injuries: Learn how to protect workers from common injuries before they become serious health and safety concerns in the future.

• Fire safety: What to include in safe work procedures: Housing providers need to have safe work procedures in place in order to prepare staff to effectively participate in fire prevention. Read these tips on what to include.

• Electrical safety: Is it time to review your procedures? Safe work procedures will help you prevent accidents and avoid significant fines. Read more about how you can ensure your procedures on electrical safety are compliant.