It is highly likely that, as a manager, you will supervise a worker with a mental illness or mental stress at some point in your career – whether you know it or not.
Mental illness is more prevalent than many people realise. Around 45 per cent of Australians aged between 16 and 85 will experience a diagnosable mental illness at some point in their life, while one in five Australian adults will experience a mental illness in any given year.
It is often presumed that a worker’s mental illness or stress is personal and not work related.
However, an ‘unhealthy’ work environment or a workplace incident can cause considerable stress and exacerbate, or contribute to, the development of mental illness. Research indicates that job stress and other work-related psychosocial hazards are emerging as the leading contributors to the burden of occupational disease and injury.
Price Waterhouse Coopers have found that companies who run even simple mental health programs have a saving of $2.60 per dollar spend, while the Hunter Medical Research Institute found that the MATES in Construction program had a health economic benefit of $4.60 per dollar spend.
Each year over 2500 Australians die by suicide, more than twice the number of deaths from traffic accidents. Three out of four suicides are by men, making suicide the leading cause of death amongst men between 15 and 44 years of age. Attempted suicide is far more common than fatal suicide events and it is currently believed that for every death by suicide, there are between 10 and 20 attempted suicides. The number of attempted suicides in Australia is estimated to be more than 60,000 each year, with more than two-thirds of these attempts by women.
The construction industry has been found to have significantly elevated suicide rates while there is evidence of higher than average mental stress within the coal mining industry. Simplistic assumptions blaming work factors such as FIFO/DIDO or personal issues miss the point as reality is far more complex. Poor mental health and suicidal behaviours are caused by a combination of the individual personal, social and environmental factors.
MATES in Construction was established as an independent charitable organisation dedicated to in construction suicide prevention. It operates solely for the benefit of the workers in the construction industry. while MATES in Construction received funding from industry, unions and employer associations, it works independently and respectfully within the industry. MATES in Construction is a collective industry solution to an industry problem.
The aim of the program is community development through building long term resilience and cultural change in the industry using best practice models. Best practice in delivery means using existing industry structures to engage with workers in their workplace community. The core philosophy is mates helping mates, with Industry supporting the program. MATES in Construction has been identified as the “missing middle”, connecting workers with help.
A MATES in Mining program, modelled off MATES in Construction, has been initiated as an industry project. A working group has been formed to develop the framework and to coordinate and conduct a site implementation trial. The trial has be conducted and was assessed to enable
any industry specific requirements to be included in the Mates in Mining program, recognising that there may be differences between the two industries. The program has been piloted on both Queensland and NSW mining sites.
Health, Safety and Environment includes the mental health and wellbeing of employees. Employers who deal with workplace mental health issues in the same considered and systematic way as physical safety issues will have positive flow on effects with respect to productivity, safety and overall performance. Industry based programs, such as MATES in Construction have the benefit of minimising privacy concerns, while empowering the workforce to tackle important issues, such as mental health.
“The construction industry has been found to have significantly elevated suicide rates while there is evidence of higher than average mental stress within the coal mining industry.”
AUTHOR PROFILE
JORGEN GULLESTRUP
MATES IN CONSTRUCTION
Over the past 28 years, Jorgen has been heavily involved in the Queensland construction industry. A plumber by trade, in 2001 he became State Secretary of the Queensland Plumbers Union to improve working conditions within the industry. While in this role, it started to become apparent that suicide rates in the construction industry for males were significantly higher than national and state averages for men generally.
In 2007, MATES in Construction was formed as the industry acknowledged self-interest and conflict needed to be put aside on both union and employer sides to generate a genuine non-partisan intervention to address the issue. Since commencement the program has expanded to Western Australia, New South Wales and South Australia.
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