The goal of CPH-NEW is to evaluate multiple models for integrating workplace health promotion with occupational health and safety to improve the health of New England workers. Employers, labor organizations and government institutions are faced the challenges of rising health care costs, an aging workforce and global trade pressures. This situation has stimulated the development of new creative initiatives to benefit both workers and companies. Some organizations have experimented with participatory efforts that engage employees in the design and implementation of these workplace health promotion efforts. Using participatory ergonomics as a model, CPH-NEW has developed a set of practical tools, supported by research findings, to introduce and support these efforts.

Specific objectives include:

• Integrate two core public health areas (occupational health and safety and health promotion), linking primary prevention to the workplace.
• Assess the value of the integration or coordination of health protection and health promotion in the workplace.
• Evaluate whether this coordinated strategy provides enhanced health benefits and/or greater cost-effectiveness.
• Identify opportunities for and obstacles to coordination of health protection and health promotion in the workplace.
• Educate public health professionals, clinicians and others about the importance of workplace stress for both health behaviors and chronic disease outcomes.
• Disseminate research results and practical tools to employers, unions and health professionals to encourage and facilitate primary prevention interventions in the workplace and the community.