Looking after mental health in the workplace

CECA Scotland has welcomed a new campaign by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) which aims to help businesses recognise the signs of poor mental health in the workplace and make tackling issues routine.

Launching the “Working Minds” campaign, HSE’s chief executive Sarah Albon said: “Work-related stress and poor mental health should be treated with the same significance as risks of poor physical health and injury. In terms of the affect it has on workers, significant and long-term stress can limit performance and impact personal lives.”

“No worker should suffer in silence and if we don’t act now to improve workers’ mental health, this could evolve into a health and safety crisis.”

Mental health is the number one reason for sick days and last year more than 17.9 million working days were lost as a result of stress, anxiety, or depression.

The facts show that construction is a high risk sector for mental health issues. According to the Samaritans, Suicide often kills more people than falls from height. Around 11% of in-work suicides happen in the construction sector, which employs 7% of the UK workforce. The risk of suicide among some site based male construction workers was three times the national average.

HSE has created a Talking Toolkit to assist employers in speaking to their employees and taking the important first step towards preventing work-related stress and developing the actions and stress risk assessment employers need to comply with the law. You can download the toolkit here.

Improving the wellbeing of our people is an important priority for CECA Scotland and our member companies and we are proud to join together with the HSE as a ‘campaign champion’ of Working Minds. You can find out more about the campaign and the resources available to help employers on the Working Minds website.