Mental Health | Construction

May is Mental Health Awareness Month so thought I would share my insights into the construction industry and mental health, as well as some support during this current situation.

Whenever I have talked to University of Salford as part of professional practice module, a topic I am always asked to discuss is what is the industry doing about mental health. My response is always the same; what ever we can: whether that is training mental health first aiders, promoting mental services on site, engaging in toolbox talks with Mates in Mind, putting mental health banners on scaffolding or trying to reduce sigma by just talking to one of another openly.

It never gets any easier reading about the stresses and mental health implications working in construction has on people especially in the current situation. CIOB in this month’s Construction Manager and their report Understanding Mental Health in the Built Environment which was released for mental health awareness week (18-24 May), reported some shocking statistics on 26% of construction workers which responded had had suicidal thoughts and 97% have experienced stress in the last year, due to a number of reasons including unrealistic deadlines, workload and lack of involvements in decisions. And we know, that this current situation is probably only making things worse, some pressures indicated in Mark Tant’s blog from Wates Group.

These statistics from the latest report from CIOB give us a big insight into the extent of the problems in the industry:

Other statastics can be found here:

https://www.constructionnews.co.uk/agenda/mind-matters/construction-mental-health-cns-mind-matters-2019-survey-08-08-2019/

I know this current situation it isn’t getting any easier, I know personally myself, have been on emotional roller coaster, from anxiety to what the future may look like to guilt that I am not working when everyone else is, to exhausted to signing up to everything and anything to keep myself busy and distracted. I would like to think when I return to work, I will be refreshed, educated and grateful I have a job to go back to.

I would say embrace this time, give your time and support to those who need it if you can but don’t be so hard on yourself if you spend all day scrolling Instagram looking at cats or binging on Netflix. It is not a productivity competition. There are no awards for the best used time during being furloughed or during the lockdown.

Finally, if you fancy some distraction from day to day life and networking with people from our wonderful industry, CIOB Leeds Hub are doing Keep Calm and Quiz on 20th May (https://events.ciob.org/ehome/200206558) and CIOB Novus are also doing a quiz in June register here: https://events.ciob.org/ehome/200205150

If you want to learn more about Mental Health in Construction and what we can do to help reduce the stigma and support our colleagues, check out some of the links below:

CIOB are doing a number of CPDs and Webinars on Mental Health in Construction, so for all those who are doing dissertations and research on this topic see below:

21st May -Mental Health Awareness

26th May – Mental health in construction

There is also daily Mental Health in Construction Webinars via CIOB Academy during Mental Health Awareness week to register go to: https://www.ciobacademy.org/course/live-webinars-for-mental-health-week-in-connection-with-the-construction-industry-helpline/

The Lighthouse club are also doing daily wellbeing sessions which can be found here: https://www.lighthouseclub.org/back-by-popular-demand-free-wellbeing-workshops/

There are also these fantastic ones already on the CIOB Academy website:

Crisis in Construction

Members Forum 2019- Mental Health

Mental Health: Are you Aware

Mental health advise for managers

Other Platforms:

Mates in Mind are also doing online well-being webinars for employees, employers and mental health champions:

https://www.matesinmind.org/our-programme/education-and-training.html

UK Construction Week Webinars also touch on the subject in these great free webinars:

The Lockdown impact on your mental health and what you can do about it

Dealing with Stress, Anxiety and change in difficult times.

Wellbeing Webinar 1: How to work from Home

Wellbeing webinar 2: Looking after your mental wellbeing whilst working from home.

I think it is so important to remember that now more than ever we need to look after our own mental health and those of others and I wanted to share some thoughts with yourselves.

Top Tips

Useful Links

NHS https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/stress-anxiety-depression/mental-health-helplines/

Construction Industry Helpline https://www.constructionindustryhelpline.com/.

If you are member of CIOB you can also access Anxiety UK by contacting +44 (0)1344 630877. This dedicated UK number will lead enquirers to a member of the CIOB Team, who will in turn facilitate referral to Anxiety UK.

Mates In Mind - https://ww.matesinmind.org/our-programme/resources-and-tools/

Mental Health Foundation- https://www.mentalhealth.org.uk/your-mental-health/looking-after-your-mental-health

Construction Industry Helpline App: https://www.constructionindustryhelpline.com/app.html

Happiful https://happiful.com/

Young Minds -https://youngminds.org.uk/

Papyrus Suicide Prevention for under 35s- https://papyrus-uk.org/

Fun activities from STEM Learning https://www.stem.org.uk/home-learning

Kids Yoga https://www.youtube.com/user/CosmicKidsYoga