The Health and Safety Executive,

To have a designated Mental Health First Aider on site on every construction site.

Troubling data from released from the Office of National Statistics found that between 2011 and 2015 of the 13,232 in work suicides recorded those with the skilled construction and building trades made up 13.2% - despite construction workers only making up only 7% of the total  UK workforce.

So of the 15 people taking their own lives every day two of these will be construction staff.

Although initiatives have been made like the Building Mental Health more needs to be done to ensure of the safety of on-site employees.

With the construction industry lifestyle being both challenging and stressful.  Long, demanding hours sometimes away from home for long periods and with an unease in the industry as company’s like Carillion’s recent collapse are some factors adding to the increase in Mental Health issues.

In a culture that is not only predominantly male but also having the ‘tough guy’ image makes asking for help or even acknowledging there is a problem difficult to near impossible.

The statistics are clearly unacceptable and although the industry has 1600 construction workers trained in Mental Health; many of these are office based and not readily available.  It is obvious a culture check needs to be implemented and the stigma of asking for help given a platform at the grassroots level.

A Mental Health First Aider on site is imperative to reduce the rate and create a safety net for those employees who would otherwise slip through.

Employers need to prioritise Mental Health on site because unrecognised and unsupported mental health issues can have a massive impact on the companies with people taking up to 70 million days off sick last year which has a knock on effect for other workers on site.

A culture needs to be developed where workers can feel comfortable to approach an on-site Mental Health First Aider.

Although the Industry has taken the Mental Health issue extremely serious, we believe that to stop the continuing and high suicide rate within Construction, an on-site Mental Health First Aider is essential to ensure that industry continues to protect its workers of all levels.

Know-How Training & Consultancy have started this petition so there is 1 Mental Health First Aider physically on site for every 20 construction workers in the United Kingdom. We hope to made this petition into legislation.