On the run up to World Suicide Prevention Day we wanted to share some statistics around mental health.

The tough mentality of construction workers and their ‘no-matter-what’ attitude has been seen as a positive characteristic within the construction industry for years. However, this mind set of being self-sufficient and not asking for help can increase the risk factors associated with mental health. The suicide rate for constructions workers is more than three times the national average for men, and men are less likely to ask for help or to speak about their struggles with their mental health.

Often, when we think about mental health, we only consider the extremes, we don’t always think about the mild cases, that make up the majority of mental health concerns faced by one in four people in the UK every year. It is more important than ever that employers create an environment where their employees feel safe, supported, and cared for. The workplace should be an environment where people can feel secure enough to talk about their mental health and raise any concerns or worries they may have.

64 percent of workers say that they want employers to provide more support around mental health.

Through education, employers can encourage workers to change their perceptions of mental health and can give them the tools they need to be able to support emotional wellbeing. This can help to eliminate the stigma around asking for help and vocalising struggles. It is beneficial for employers and employees to be able to recognise the early signs of anxiety, depression and other mental health issues within their workplace and understand what support is available and how to access it.

Building Mental Health is an initiative led by industry experts who aim to ‘encourage the industry to engage and embrace the mental health agenda, make best practice and information readily and wherever possible freely available and ensure that the industry takes a huge leap forward to reduce the stigma surrounding mental health by getting the conversation started while educating as many as possible where and when to seek help.’ They say, ‘every working day, two construction workers take their own life. We have to educate everyone in our industry to recognise the signs and symptoms of our colleagues that are suffering from stress, anxiety or depression and start the conversation to assist in their recovery.’

Our next Level 3 Supervising First Aid for Mental Health course is running at our training room in Nantwich on Monday 27th & Tuesday 28th September, the course is accredited by Nuco and costs £140 +VAT pp. To book your place, get in touch using the details below.