One in 10 construction workers admit to having poor mental health and 62% confess to feeling stressed, according to a new report by Constructing Excellence South West (CESW)
Constructing Excellence South West (CESW) partnered with Red Dot 365 to explore the overall mental health of construction workers for the first time.
They found that 10% of construction workers admitted to their mental and personal wellbeing as poor, two and a half times more than the national average at 3.5%.
Additionally, 62% confessed to feeling stressed and 57% said they were looking to find a way to cope day-to-day.
The results follow the launch of the first ever mental and physical wellbeing dashboard for the construction industry.
It has been designed by CESW and Red Dot 365 and gives organisations insight into their employee’s mental health and wellbeing.
It aims to help tackle the issues through management courses or individual coaching programmes.
‘Man up and get on with it’
Andrew Carpenter, CEO of CESW said: “We wanted to get a better insight into the size of the mental wellbeing challenge and the common themes running through the industry and there have been some really interesting stats from it.
“Thanks to our collaboration with Red Dot 365, we found that 10% of workers rated their mental and personal wellbeing as poor which could be down to poor working conditions, the macho nature of the sector to just ‘man up and get on with it,’ a low paid environment, or the culture of working long hours, often away from family, which can have a massive effect on home life.
“The main challenge is to get a gauge of what is required from the people on the front line, bring attention to this, and then shape the right solutions to help and start affecting government policy and working environment.”
