The MATES in Construction (MATES) program is a peer based mental health and suicide prevention program designed for the construction industry. The program was created in 2007 and has since reached more than 300,000 construction workers across Australia. The program recruits volunteer gatekeepers and provides further suicide intervention skills training to these volunteers. Close to 10% of the workers reached will volunteer to become “Connectors” (over 28,000 trained) who will identify and ‘connect’ workers in distress and “ASIST Workers (Over 3,500 trained) who can provide suicide safety.
This presentation will present findings from a qualitative study of 30 volunteers with the MATES program as part of a larger PhD project focusing on help-offering among men in workplace suicide prevention. In examining worker motivations to engage in help-offering through the MATES program the concept and importance of mateship as a motivator stood out. The construction industry has unique features and conditions such as a strong union culture, project-based employment and a strong masculine culture that enhance the concepts of mateship as a group dynamic despite societal trends towards neo-liberalism and individualism.
Initial findings support social identity theory as explaining important motivating factors for engagement in the MATES program. Workers identify suicide and mental health as a problem they need to be part of solving because it is happening in their industry. Workers’ identity as construction workers and industry norms of mateship appears to be significant motivators. Other important factors include seeing mental health and suicide prevention from a health and safety perspective or a desire to use personal lived experience in support of others.