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The Mental Health Foundation's Mental Health Awareness Week is highlighting that over the last 12 months we've seen a variety of initiatives on the BBC, from organisations like Mates in Mind and even by the Royal Family’s Prince Harry that point to the need for male dominated industries like construction to change the way they address mental health. So with this being Mental Health Foundation’s Mental Health Week, here are three sobering facts about the direct cost to the construction industry of the impact of stress and poor mental health.

1. Over 11 million days are lost at work a year because of stress at work. For those of us in the construction industry, 1.9 million are lost due to work-related ill health, including stress, anxiety and depression. More shocking, “mental health issues account for people taking almost 70 million days off sick per year – the most of any health condition – costing the UK economy between £70 billion and £100 billion a year”.
2. From a survey conducted by the CIOB, about stress in the construction industry, results show that “the majority of respondents (68.2%) had suffered from stress, anxiety or depression as a direct result of working in the construction industry. The main causes of workplace stress cited by the respondents were: lack of feedback, poor communication, inadequate staffing, too much work, ambitious deadlines, pressure and conflicting demands.”
3. At any given time, across England and Wales, one worker in six is said to be experiencing depression, anxiety or other stress related problems. These issues can have a detrimental effect to your construction project risk register and can have a wide variety of costly impacts, ranging from higher staff turnover, costly accident or damage to ability to deliver to contract. Mental health issues in the workplace can lead to tiredness, employees getting distracted can lead to accidents.

So, what can we do to improve these statistics? Watch Marc Preston's special live-cast ‘How to support mental health in the work place’ HERE. Discover some of the ways his unique service is helping construction companies tackle this immense challenge and at the same time improve the performance of staff and companies as a whole. For more information on our unique Employee Assistance Programme, or book a Mental Health First Aid Training Course to support your employees, call us now on 0800 634 5521 or visit our CONTACT US page.

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