This is a very powerful and important reflection on workplace mental health and suicide prevention. In helping a colleague sort through the best approach forward, we would like to share our breakdown of the key thoughts and concerns. Hopefully you can add to our thinking.
- Two colleagues died by suicide in one week. It was on the anniversary of losing another colleague to suicide.
- This has caused immense grief and raised urgent questions about how to better support employees and prevent future tragedies.
Immediate Questions & Concerns:
- Safety and health works to prevent fatalities and serious injuries. Yet in the construction industries six people die from suicide for every employee that dies from an injury. Are we paying enough attention to mental health? Is it the role of S&H to do so?
- How to provide care and support to the families of the deceased colleagues.
- How to address the impact on the workforce and create a safe and supportive environment to talk about this tragedy.
- Are current mental health strategies sufficient and how to improve them.
- How to equip employees and leaders to recognize and respond to signs of distress or suicidal ideation.
- How to encourage the use of mental first aid tools for those who are uncomfortable using them.
Reflections on Current Practices & Challenges:
- There's a need for increased mental health training and awareness, potentially for all employees.
- A need to empower employees with tools and resources to manage their mental well-being, including financial, marital, and family support.
- Is it worth considering the role of professional counselors in the workplace and how would we integrate them effectively.
- There's a need to clarify the roles of safety leaders, champions, and advocates in a comprehensive mental health strategy.
- Need to evaluate the effectiveness of current mental health first aid training and considering expanding it.
- A desire for the safety practitioner to move beyond basic hazard recognition, PPE and training to incorporate deeper understanding of psychology and emotional well-being.
- Concern that organizational leaders may not be sufficiently engaged with employees and their well-being.
- There appears to be a disconnect between HR and safety perspectives on employee well-being.
Principal Psychologist at Potentialz Unlimited
1 个月I can add that research shows that psychotherapy can lead to a ???????????????????? 30-32% ?????????? ???????? ???? ?????????????????????? ???????????????????? ?????????????? ??. https://www.dhirubhai.net/posts/gurprit-ganda-sydney_%F0%9D%90%82%F0%9D%90%9A%F0%9D%90%A7-%F0%9D%90%8F%F0%9D%90%AC%F0%9D%90%B2%F0%9D%90%9C%F0%9D%90%A1%F0%9D%90%A8%F0%9D%90%AD%F0%9D%90%A1%F0%9D%90%9E%F0%9D%90%AB%F0%9D%90%9A%F0%9D%90%A9%F0%9D%90%B2-%F0%9D%90%87%F0%9D%90%9E%F0%9D%90%A5%F0%9D%90%A9-activity-7244902869882077186-n5aP?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_desktop
Safety & Risk Executive | Human & Organizational Performance
1 个月Emile MacDonald-Williams CMIOSH and Kirsty Arnold, I know you are both passionate about this topic. Clearly not just another thing for the HSE leader to fulfill, more an 'enterprise-wide social conscience' challenge that we must support.
Ensuring Safety Programs Deliver | Keynote Speaker in the Far East | Conference Host in the Middle East | Awarded for "excellence in applied learning" in Las Vegas
1 个月I like Ron Butcher’s response. Allowing people to be seen, heard, influence the way they work, even if we stick in “our lane” improves safety, health and well-being, helping and being helped is the source of trust and trust solves many problems. In my own professional journey, I didn’t directly tackle mental health, the only way I could solve the “safety” issues I saw was to fix business relationships; ensuring that engineering talked to procurement, ops talked to HR and Finance, created better working environments; the more people talked the more we supported each others purpose, eventually shared purpose. Accidents went away and so did suicides. Solving problems means creating the right environment for people to be willing to share them, when the front line worker sees they’ve influenced procurement policy to get the right equipment, that finance allowed the investment, that ops/your boss gives you the time and training to improve your skills and abilities, feels good. For sure there is need for people that understand deeply the subject at hand, and many have problems outside of work, but seek to be helpful and trusted, connect people to collaborate, everything gets better.
Safety & Health Activist | Innovator | Investigator
1 个月The H&S advisory person, what influence?, what leverage?, what power? what law? do they really have in making a positive contribution in planning & controlling to eliminate mental illnesses caused or made worse by work..? Physical, chemical, biological, ergonomic & industry specific hazards, risks & dangers; usually the H&S person has significant influence, there are laws & rules to comply with ≈ work caused psychosocial hazards, risks & dangers; often dreadful, destructive acts done to working people purposefully; there’s no specific named H&S law to stop that!? There are some changes in Australia ???? however. If needed, the H&S person stops dangerous work; or locks off dangerous kit, there’s a H&S rule or law to back that decision = how does the H&S person stop wage theft for example..? I’ve been personally involved in “at-work-suicide-prevention”; we didn’t actually prevent suicide, we just tried to make sure it wasn’t on the work premises..!! This was late 1980’s & early 1990’s by the way..! Owners / employers / executives & HR plot and plan to do negative, destructive acts to working people; quite often “simply-because-they-can” to gouge more profit &/or cut more costs. In that common scenario, H&S can stop??that, yes?
International award winning safety professional
1 个月Is it in the health and safety domain? Are health and safety folks deemed to be educated, qualified and competent in this area? If so, yes.