These are the words of Samantha Downie, Managing Director of construction charity Mates in Mind. This charity was founded in 2017 by the Construction Leadership Council and the British Safety Council to help address the concerns around mental health in the sector.
Mates in Mind works with organisations of all sizes from an individual sole trader to large construction organisations to support workers to identify risks to their mental health in themselves and their colleagues, and to identify the best action to take going forward.
As such, Mates in Mind is a perfect fit to partner with MAD World’s first ever Construction Summit taking place alongside our other festivals (the Leaders’ Summit, the Legal Industry Summit and the DE&I Summit) on 17th October in London (if you haven’t yet reserved your ticket, you can see the full agenda and register here).
We spoke to Downie to find out more…
Why did Mates in Mind decide to partner with this inaugural MAD World Construction Summit?
Construction is a major employer in the UK and globally. We know that, in general, work is beneficial to us, and that a good job can have a positive impact on our lives. However, the converse can also be true.
In the construction sector there are some challenges, for example, long and stressful hours, working away from home, physicality of the work, financial/work instability, and so on. As a result, there’s a high level of suicide risk within the sector, 3.7 times higher than the national average, and any life lost is completely unacceptable.
We knew that by joining up with MAD World, we could reach more organisations, and individuals. Working together we can build positive mental health in and through work, therefore creating a more mentally resilient sector with the aim of preventing anyone else from reaching the point of crisis.
You started the job 7 months ago and your background is not construction, but more on the therapeutic side having worked in, for example, charities helping people struggling with addictions. What attracted you to this job?
Yes, my background is running mental health services on a local, regional and national level. I’ve run services for troubled families, for people experiencing addictions and homelessness, for veterans, and for prisoners.
I’ve worked at every level of intervention to help people that are often in situations that they find really hard to change, and which has involved supporting them to find ways to make different decisions.
The difference in this role is that we have the opportunity to work with about 10% of the UK workforce, so we are talking about making a difference that can benefit the whole country. We can do this by not only helping those who are experiencing mental ill-health, but we can also try to prevent people becoming ill through stress, depression or anxiety and support them before they reach the point of crisis.
That’s a huge opportunity which excites me and that’s what attracted me to this job.
Is addiction a particular challenge in the construction sector?
We know that people sometimes turn to using substances. It could be caffeine or energy drinks to keep them awake in the morning, or on the drive home. It could be over the counter medication to manage pain because they have an injury or a chronic health problem. It could be people using illicit substances to decompress after a long week. It could be using porn, or gambling.
We all struggle with life sometimes as human beings and we understand there are a range of ways people seek to feel better. At Mates in Mind, we aim to support people by helping them understand how to take care of themselves and recognise that, sometimes, making healthy choices is difficult.
For example, if you’re travelling a lot, it’s difficult to choose to exercise, or to eat healthily. If you’re away from home and there is not a lot else to do, you may choose to use your phone late into the night, which will impact on your sleep despite the fact you are exhausted from working long hours.
It’s about understanding the situation a person might find themselves in and offering practical support that they can actually use.
Some people in construction believe that it would be easier to have conversations about mental health if there were more women working in the industry. To what extent do you agree with that?
That’s a really tough one. On one level, I want to say yes but it’s not just about women, it’s about greater diversity in general. I believe more diversity brings positive change, whether that’s diversity of age, gender or ethnicity.
But that only works if the diversity is valued. If it isn’t, then the research shows that it can actually have a negative effect overall. There’s some research on this, for example, in relation to farming, which is also a male dominated industry.
One study shows that women in farming find it even harder than men to discuss mental illness because they feel the double burden of being in a sector that doesn’t talk about vulnerability, and being a minority as a woman. They worry they’re going to be perceived as being more emotionally volatile and vulnerable, so they are actually more at risk regarding their mental health. So, what you tend to see is almost a ‘hypermasculinity’ presented by women working in farming.
It’s a complex issue and not simply about putting particular people in an environment, which can actually sometimes be unhelpful and counterproductive.
The issue here is not about the gender makeup of the industry, but about removing the stigma that surrounds mental health, by encouraging everyone to start the conversation if they are experiencing mental ill-health, or they think a colleague may be. And by everyone, I mean senior management leading by example, down through every workplace be that on site, in an office or on the road.
You’ve held roles in the past specialising in equality, diversity and inclusion. How progressive do you think the construction industry is on these fronts?
It varies by company.
I’m the granddaughter of a bricklayer and I can see, even though I’m early days in this role, that the industry is radically different to the one he worked in. It’s much more diverse and inclusive.
However, I know that, according to the statistics, the workforce isn’t as diverse as other sectors.
Also, the evidence, in terms of mental ill-health indicates that people don’t feel comfortable talking about mental health at work, and that when they do raise their vulnerability, they’re not being responded to in a way that enables them to find help quickly enough and recover. But there is a huge appetite for change, both at an organisational and individual level.
What are you most looking forward to at the MAD World Construction Summit?
Being in an environment that celebrates the sector and is focused on what we can do to make it better and how, together, we can address the challenges within it.
I’m really looking forward to connecting with colleagues in the sector but also from other sectors, that have similar challenges, that we can learn from.
_______________________________________________________________________________________________
The Construction Summit at MAD World is an event committed to building better mental health and wellbeing cultures across the construction industry’s workforces. The summit is being run in partnership with Mates in Mind, and hosts speakers such as Sam Downie, Managing Director, Mates in Mind, Tideway’s Director of Business Services and HSW, Steve Hails, and innovators from other progressive construction companies.
MAD World is on 17th October 2024, and will bring together speakers and attendees from across sectors and with a range of job titles for five tracks of leading-edge content that showcase best practice and provide insights and inspiration for all those looking to achieve maximum engagement with initiatives, optimise investment, stay one step ahead and really make a difference.
The stellar lineup of speakers includes: Professor Dame Carol Black GBE FRCP FMed Sci; Peter Cheese, CEO, CIPD, Vanessa Harwood-Whitcher, Chief Executive, The Institute of Occupational Safety & Health (IOSH), Dhavani Bishop, Head of Group Colleague Health & Wellbeing, Tesco, Kirstin Furber, People Director, Channel 4, Dr Clare Fernandes, Chief Medical Officer, BBC, Christian van Stolk, Executive Vice President, RAND Europe, Andrew Gibbons, Group Head of Wellbeing, Recognition and Hybrid Working, HSBC, Karen Brookes, Chief People Officer, Sir Robert McAlpine, Jaimy Fairclough, Wellbeing Specialist – People Division, Sainsbury’s, Dr Femi Oduneye, Vice President Health, Shell International B.V. and many more. You can find out more and register to attend here.
You might also like:
