Mental health charity Mind has produced a toolkit with construction partners to promote better wellbeing in the industry.
The toolkit is online at the Mental Health at Work website. This UK-wide initiative allows all types of construction workers to access free tools, advice and information – all in one place.
The construction toolkit includes resources from a range of expert organisations. The resources include tips on how to start the conversation on mental health, mental health first aid training and five steps to building a positive and supportive culture in construction. Mind invited colleagues from Building Mental Health to put together this toolkit of resources, which includes material from Mates in Mind and the Lighthouse Club.
Faye McGuinness, head of workplace wellbeing programmes at Mind, said: “We are pleased to launch this sector specific toolkit to the construction industry, in partnership with Building Mental Health. It brings together resources from a range of expert organisations, many of which are free.
“We know that suicide rates are a much larger cause of death than falls from a height in the construction industry. We hope this toolkit encourages people to open up the conversation on mental health in construction and to utilise the resources to help them get started.”
Emily Garnett works at Morgan Sindall. She has generalised anxiety and was diagnosed with depression in 2017. She said: “It’s great to see a toolkit specifically designed for the construction industry. Over the past few years I have seen the positive changes within the industry towards health and wellbeing, although I believe there is still a long way to go, particularly in the construction industry where suicide rates are the highest of any sector.We will all experience mental illness directly or indirectly at some point in our lives, so the more we seek help and talk about it the better.”
