Gary’s story.
The Last Word.
Work Under Pressure.

These 3 powerful videos appear on the website of Mates in Mind (MiM). Suicide kills far more construction workers than work place accidents.  MiM is a charitable programme to improve and promote positive mental health in construction. It has been co-founded by Health in Construction and British Safety Council.

At present, one in 6 workers in the UK is experiencing depression, anxiety or stress. 6% of the UK work force is made up of construction workers, that is 2.1 million people. Hence at any given time at least 350,000 people in the industry will be dealing with mental ill health and possibly feeling alone. Raising awareness and generating champions through modular training in that community means there will always be someone close by who can help or are dealing with similar feelings.

A recent article in the BMJ states 5 facts about the conditions in anaesthetic training –

Workload – Nearly all had stayed beyond their shift. Nearly two thirds (62%) said that in the previous month they had gone through a shift without a meal, and 75% had done a shift without drinking enough water.

Health – Sixty four per cent of the anaesthetics trainees thought that their job had negatively affected their physical health, and 61% thought it had negatively affected their mental health.

Morale – Poor work-life balance, the burden of assessment, career uncertainty, frequent rotations, and terms and conditions of service sapped their morale.

Patient safety – This had worsened due to lack of available hospital beds, staff morale, and staff shortages.

Burnout risk – 85% of these young doctors were at risk of burnout.

I think Mr Hunt can take credit for some of these issues.

Mate in Mind is a fantastic example for other industries to make a concerted effort to address the well being of their employees in these difficult and uncertain times.

Ref:
https://www.matesinmind.org/employers.html

http://careers.bmj.com/careers/advice/Five_facts_about_conditions_in_anaesthetics_training