Changing the narrative: Building positive mental health in construction

Trigger warning: this article mentions suicide

Mates in Mind discusses the high suicide rates in construction, the importance of tackling it, and the stigma surrounding it

We know that many organisations are doing great work in building positive mental health in and through their own workplaces, and yet mental ill-health and deaths by suicide are still far too prevalent across the construction sector:

• Provisional statistics from the Office for National Statistics found that 355 people working in skilled construction and building trades died by suicide in England and Wales in 2024.
• In 2021, there were 6,319 suicides registered in the UK, of which 507 were in construction alone.
• Workers in construction were at some of the highest risk of suicide in the country, at 3.7 times higher than the national average. For men working in skilled trades, the highest risk was amongst those in building finishing trades, who had more than double the suicide risk of the male national average.
• CIOB research found that 27% of construction workers had experienced suicidal thoughts at some point in the previous year (up from 26% in 2020).

Therefore, as we approach World Suicide Prevention Day (10 September), World Mental Health Day (10 October), and Men’s Health Awareness Month (November), let’s make a pledge to change these shocking statistics.

Changing the narrative

Throughout 2024-2026, the World Suicide Prevention Day theme is “Changing the Narrative on Suicide”. The aim is to ‘shift from a culture of silence and stigma to one of openness, understanding, and support’.

This is something we advocate for, and whilst there is no magic wand that will instantly change the situation, that does not mean we should not try. Therefore, we are calling on all construction companies, whatever their size, to act now, not just on these awareness dates, but every day.

Working together, we can create environments and cultures that promote positive mental health and create a mentally resilient sector, because everyone matters.

Please see the ‘what you can do’ section to find out how you can join our community and be part of the solution.

Changing your mindset

Firstly, think about the language you use. In order to eradicate the stigma and normalise conversations about mental health, we need to end the silence that surrounds it. This is a complex subject, but there are three things you can do today:

1. Language – be conscious of the words and expressions you use. Ensure you use positive language, e.g., use ‘mental health condition’ or ‘experiencing mental ill-health’ instead of ‘mental health problem/issue’ or ‘struggling with mental health’. Similarly, if communicating about a suicide, use ‘death/died by suicide’, rather than ‘committed suicide’. You can download a ‘changing the narrative – language resource’ here
2. Learn more – read our blog on eradicating the culture of silence
3. Take action – please take on board the guidance in this article, and if you identify any gaps in your provision, take action to fill them.

Secondly, think about how you behave. If you notice a physical change in someone, for example, they are coughing and sneezing, have a plaster cast on their leg, they are wearing a glucose monitor on their arm, etc., you would know they had a physical ailment or disability, and would ask if they are okay and discuss what support you can provide.

But would you notice if someone was experiencing mental ill-health or a mental illness? If you had noticed, would you feel uncomfortable and more likely to overlook them because it was a mental rather than a physical condition?

Definitions

First, a quick quiz – do you know:

1. What is the difference between mental health, mental ill-health and mental illness?
2. What is the difference between primary, secondary and tertiary interventions?
3. Which interventions do you have available in your organisation?
4. What is the impact of those interventions?
5. Do you have a mental health policy?
6. Are your managers trained to conduct individual stress risk assessments and know how to act on them?
7. What is your legal duty of care?

If you answer ‘no’ or ‘unsure’ to any of these, please be aware that, although these are all key elements in building positive mental health at work, sadly, you are not alone; many organisations are in the same position (please see point 3 below).

The good news is that Mates in Mind can provide you with the tools, skills and knowledge with which to build positive mental health in and through work. Obviously, we cannot provide answers to questions 3 to 6; however, if you are unsure, we suggest consulting with your line manager, HR, or senior team.

If they are also unable to answer those questions, please reach out to us to inquire about our Supporter Programme, which begins with an assessment of your mental health provision.

For the other questions, here are the answers:

1. Mental health, ill-health and illness:

• Mental health: everyone has mental health; it can vary from good to poor and be anywhere in between. It can fluctuate over the course of an hour, a day, a week, or a year, and it can be influenced by our work, personal lives, or a combination of the two. It is also almost impossible to compartmentalise our lives, because in today’s working environment, the distinctions between the ‘health’ we bring to work and the ‘health’ we have because of work are becoming increasingly hard to distinguish.
• Mental ill-health: is a broad term encompassing a range of experiences that would not meet the criteria of an illness, e.g., stress, low mood, feeling overwhelmed, etc. These tend to be temporary, but can be challenging to navigate.
• Mental illness: is a diagnosed condition with specific criteria, it can significantly affect a person’s thinking, feeling and behaviour, it requires professional diagnosis and treatment, e.g., depression, anxiety disorders, bipolar disorder, etc.
  In this article, we will use the term ‘mental health condition’ to encompass both mental ill-health and mental illness.

In terms of recognising the signs of stress, depression or anxiety, you can download free resources from our website  – but the key thing to remember is that if you notice that someone is not their usual self, please ask if they’re ok, then ask again.

2. Interventions

• Primary: this is about organisation-wide prevention, i.e., identifying and mitigating risk, such as organisational culture, policies, management, etc., as well as identifying and filling gaps in provision.
• Secondary: this is about prevention at an employee level, e.g., upskilling individuals.
• Tertiary: is treatment, i.e., providing solutions at the point of need, e.g., Employee Assistance Programmes (EAPs), helplines, etc.

All three stages are important, necessary, and need to be optimised. However, at Mates in Mind, we advocate for a focus on prevention, i.e., proactive interventions (primary and secondary) in order to provide support before someone reaches the point of crisis.

3. Legal duty

‘Employers have a legal duty to protect workers from stress at work by doing a risk assessment and acting on it. This is the same duty you have to protect people from other health and safety risks.’ (Health and Safety Executive).

Worryingly, our survey found that:

• Fewer than 10% of respondents said that their “line managers know how to undertake stress risk assessments and understand when they may be necessary” (almost 70% said they would not).
• Less than 20% have mental health policies in place (over 46% do not).
• Less than 13% said they have provided all employees with general mental health awareness training in the last two years (61% have not).
  H3: Suicide Prevention and Postvention

At Mates in Mind, we work with organisations to implement integrated strategies, tools, and support across their workforce, which support their employees’ mental health and wellbeing within work, creating the foundations of a culture of prevention.

These actions, combined with improved awareness and understanding of the topics, opportunities for further education around both suicide prevention and mental health, and a commitment to improving these areas across the organisation, all produce a workplace culture geared towards ongoing prevention.

Whilst we advocate for the creation of workplace cultures that emphasise prevention, we know that deaths by suicide may still occur.

Research has estimated that up to 135 people can be affected by a single suicide – family, friends, colleagues, first responders, including medical and police staff, and the wider community are also impacted.

Therefore, we have created a Suicide Prevention Resource which provides information on how to build and embed a culture of prevention across your organisation, as well as a Post-Suicide Response Guide that provides information on who may be affected, the impact of suicide on them, how to support them, and provides tools and templates to do that.

To discover more about World Suicide Prevention Day, and to download free resources (including the documents above, a poster and infographic), please visit our website.

What you can do

We hope that you are providing your employees with a breadth of interventions across the primary, secondary, and tertiary levels, but we understand that for smaller organisations, that is not always possible. Start by asking yourself, are you:

• Aware of where you are on your mental health journey? Do you know where the gaps are in your provision?
• Ensuring your provision includes both preventative measures as well as point-of-need interventions?
• Regularly communicating to ensure that all of your employees know what is available and how to access it?
• Aware that although 88% of UK employers provide an Employee Assistance Programme (EAP), only 5% of employees use it?
• Reviewing the interventions to ensure they are fit for your organisation?
• Checking that they are being used by employees, and the impact they are having?
• Training your employees so that they have the skills and confidence to spot the signs and start conversations about mental health?
• In the case of larger organisations, are you extending the interventions to all organisations, especially the SMEs and sole traders in your supply chain?

If your answer to these questions is ‘no’, then please visit our Supporter page to discover how we work with organisations like yours, to improve the mental well-being of employees – starting with an organisational assessment to establish where you are and develop a tailored action plan to fill any gaps in your provision.

In addition, if the answer to the last question is ‘no’, then please visit our Champions page  to discover what you can do to extend your reach and lead in creating a mentally resilient sector.

Conclusion

As you will have read in this article, our focus has always been on prevention. We work with organisations to ensure all workers have the knowledge, tools, and confidence to recognise mental ill-health in themselves and in their colleagues.

Through normalising conversations about mental health, it will end the stigma that persistently surrounds it and empower more people to seek support if/when they need it.

We also collaborate with government officials and sector leaders to implement sustainable, systemic changes, aiming to mitigate the causes of psychosocial risks and support individuals before they reach a crisis point.

In this article, we have only just touched on what organisations can do to end the stigma of mental ill-health, build cultures of protection, and create positive mental health in and through work. In addition to the links in the article above, please use the following to discover much more:

• Blogs
• Resources to download and watch
• Training:

If this article has resonated with you, please visit this webpage which provides a list of support services, or if you would prefer not to talk, please text BEAMATE to 85258.

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