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Denise Morrell and occupational health and safety among nonprofits
By Nicole Zummach
November 26, 2007
CALGARY, AB // There are lots of reasons why people leave their job, but a workplace injury is probably the least desirable scenario. Unfortunately, studies conducted in recent years reveal that it isn't just construction workers and fire fighters getting hurt on the job. Injuries are showing up in all kinds of unexpected places and the nonprofit sector is not exempt, especially when it comes to healthcare and service providers.
No one knows this better than Denise Morrell. As director of human resources and administration for the Developmental Disabilities Resource Centre of Calgary (DDRC) she has worked to improve health and safety in her own organization and beyond. In 2005, she was selected as a Muttart Fellow to help bring more awareness to the issue. CharityVillage spoke with Morrell about her research and the need for better occupational health and safety programs among nonprofits.
CharityVillage: What prompted you to begin your work in the area of occupational health and safety?

Denise Morrell: What I did was research, develop, and provide a training module for the nonprofit sector within Calgary. But it began long before I started my Muttart Fellowship in 2005. In 2003, DDRC was approached by [Alberta] Workplace Health & Safety. At the time, they were beginning to identify trends in the community, specifically with NGOs. They were seeing an increase in WCB claims for lost-time injuries, where employees had to take time off. But they could only see statistics, so they decided to go out into the community and support and collaborate with nonprofits so that they could have programs to protect their workers.

I started working with the occupational health and safety officer and in 2004 we decided to run some information sessions on the occupational health and safety act, code, and regulations. It was through the implementation and evaluation of these information sessions that I realized the significant need within this industry to build some capacity around health and safety. That's when I knew this had the potential to be a very good project.
CV: What did you research during your fellowship year?

DM: My research was around what resources are out there, what information is out there, what's accessible, what's affordable, and what's free for service providers, so that when I got together with them I would be able to provide a resource list. What I thought was going to be my project turned out a bit different. I ended up surveying the audience I wanted to target to have them give me information about what they needed. What I thought they needed was more in-depth information and detail about each hazard within the industry and what we were seeing. But a great many of the people surveyed did not even have the fundamentals of occupational health and safety, which is rather frightening because it has been in legislation for many years. That was helpful in preparing for the training I did with them, and providing them with the resource list.
CV: It's interesting because your research brings to light an even bigger issue in the nonprofit sector, which is the shortage of resources and time.

DM: And that's the critical piece, right? One of the things we're dealing with right now, for example, is the labour force issues. Recruitment and retention is so challenging; one of the ways that you can have a competitive edge is to say, "We value our employees, and to demonstrate that we do XYZ." One of the ways is [to] have a comprehensive occupational health and safety program that meets the legislative requirements. It demonstrates to employees that they are truly valued and cared for in a way where they are not being put at risk. There is some degree of risk in any position. There are some ways that you will never be able to control hazards, but there is also due diligence to demonstrate to your employees that you are following best practices.
CV: What were some of the outcomes of your work?

DM: I prepared training around the needs of the Community Rehabilitation Service Providers Council of Calgary. I ended up having 23 organizations participate. It was an opportunity to build capacity in regard to my expertise, and I am far from an expert in any of this but I have a good handle on the fundamentals now. I also provided [organizations] with a CD-ROM about how to roll this information out to their board, to their managers, and to workers. It was a very tangible, concrete project that could be taken away. A person could then easily roll out an occupational health and safety program that looked at rights and responsibilities, due diligence, hazard assessments, hazard control, training, required documentation and paperwork, incident reports and critical incident writing. All of that information was there.
The disadvantage is that in February 2007 a new occupational health and safety code came into effect. It impacts the relevance of some of the information I compiled. But we knew that going in. There is no way it is going to remain a static document. We knew that the process was going to be quite dynamic. What it still has done, though, is built that capacity.
CV: How are things different now within your organization and beyond?

DM: Within the organization, I think we have a very dynamic health and safety program. I've been able to identify individuals who are leaders, who love this tangible, get-their-hands-on-it, black and white legislation. We've used that to build a really dynamic program. I also think we demonstrate best practice to the rest of the Service Providers Council. And I'm able to now act as a resource when it comes to health and safety.
Since the beginning - since 2003 - I have noticed a substantial increase in information being shared in the sector about health and safety. It ended up getting on people's radar for a few reasons. It was because Workplace Health & Safety sort of sat up and said, "How can we support this collective?" Secondly, we provided that training to the Service Providers Council and they were able to roll it out. And of course, there was the Muttart Fellowship.
CV: How did your year as a Muttart Fellow impact you personally?

DM: Well, you can't argue with staying in your jammies and putting a pot of coffee on! The Muttart Foundation was incredibly generous; they encouraged some down time at the beginning of the leave to just decompress a bit. I had the opportunity to do that, and I do believe that there is a change in who I am after having that leave. It was so meaningful to me personally to have that year away because it gave me an opportunity to say, "This was the first part of my life and now what do I want the second part to be?" It was an incredible gift of time.
Denise Morrell is director of human resources and administration for the Developmental Disabilities Resource Centre of Calgary. She has been with the organization since 1989.

To learn more about the Muttart Fellowships, visit: www.muttart.org.