Mental Health Awareness Week

To celebrate mental health awareness week all of the contractors working at Holloway Park were invited to join in a ‘take a break’ conversation about maintaining good mental health as part of the campaign initiated by London Square. This meant a chance to stop work for a chat, a bite to eat and to hear a presentation about maintaining good mental health. Suicide is the greatest killer of young men in the UK, and the rates for construction workers are alarmingly high so it really matters to maintain good mental health for everyone working here.

The presenter Barry, the Operations Director from Pure Logistics said ‘it is really important, particularly in construction, which is still such a masculine area, you can see that men sometimes are having a silent struggle with their mental health. It is important to reach out to colleagues to check they are ok’ Barry is a mental health first aider with 10 years working in construction, so he knows what he is talking about. Laura, our community liaison manager said ‘this is just the start, we are also arranging for the charity Lighthouse the Construction Industry charity who specialise in this area to visit site to have these conversations over a coffee’. There will also be the opportunity for construction workers to train as mental health first aiders, as part of this initiative, and we hope that Initiatives like this will make a difference to the welfare of our workers.

If you are struggling with your own mental health regardless of whether you work in construction, help and support is always available. You can contact the Samaritans on 116 123 for free, and if you do work in construction, the Lighthouse charity can be contacted through their helpline on 0345 605 1956 or www.lighthouseclub.org