I'm going to go first. Emile and I will share our time.
As mentioned, we're senior scientists at the Institute for Work and Health, which is a not-for-profit independent research organization.
I'm also a professor at the University of Toronto, where I've been conducting research into this area for about 20 years, and I currently direct a large partnership grant funded by CIHR and SSHRC that aims to improve work participation and work sustainability among individuals with episodic disabilities.
I'm going to focus my remarks on two critical at-work issues that can be uniquely challenging for those with episodic disabilities.
The first is what I would characterize as an increased risk of hastening the decision that a worker with an episodic disability has created undue hardship for at-work accommodations, which can lead to a dismissal.
The second is the process by which workplaces often become aware of an episodic disability, and the characterizing of episodic disabilities as performance problems requiring progressive disciplinary actions rather than as triggering a more positive, supportive, problem-solving approach to sustaining work. Both of these challenges are related to the nature of episodic disabilities and are shaped by policies related to health privacy and accommodations.
First of all, what do I mean by the nature of episodic disabilities? As mentioned by Maureen, the label highlights the intermittent nature of the condition, but very often two other characteristics are important. First, many of these episodic conditions are invisible to others. Looking around the room, it's not apparent who here might have depression, anxiety, IBD, arthritis, MS, HIV, migraine and a range of other conditions. Second, as also mentioned by Maureen, the flare-ups or episodes associated with these disabilities are often unpredictable, even when a condition is being well managed by the health care system.
Also important is that workplace support plays out in the realm of privacy and duty-to-accommodate legislation. Both of these areas of legislation are important, and Canada is recognized as a leader in them. The difficulties are often in implementing the legislation. Workers and various workplace parties may come together to identify initial supports and accommodation. However, the episodic nature of the condition often means that it ebbs and flows, and so accommodation plans typically need to be revisited and revised. In having to revisit accommodation plans, workplace parties who may not be fully aware of a person's needs or who think a worker looks fine may perceive that the ongoing and potentially changing nature of the disability really reflects undue hardship for them in the workplace, and that may hasten actions that result in a person's dismissal.
The second point is that workers with episodic disabilities often require time away. They have greater absenteeism. When we talk to workplace parties, they often tell us that people with episodic disabilities often get caught in their attendance management programs. The program tends to then trigger a series of disciplinary actions and starts to cast disability as a performance problem.
Workers now sometimes feel forced to disclose health information when they are unprepared and maybe not well equipped with information about their rights and obligations. Sometimes they are so concerned about workplace reactions like stigma or even job loss that they continue not to provide the workplace with information about their needs. Once they have then been characterized as having a performance issue, it's difficult for all the parties involved to move beyond this and take a more positive approach, and there's often a lack of trust.
What's needed? There needs to be a better understanding of the unique nature of episodic disabilities, of their impact on issues like communication and support at work, as well as tools and resources to help workplaces and workers. Some of the work many of us are doing here is actually aimed at doing just that.
I want to echo Adele's comments about the value of ESDC and Statistics Canada's Canadian Survey on Disability as a really important resource that we need to continue to build and use.
I'll pass it over to you, Emile.