Mates is an independent construction industry charity established in 2007 in response to construction workforce rates of suicide in Australia. The charity is led by a multimodal programme based on four principles: raising awareness among workers; building resilience in the workplace; connecting workers to help and support through help offering; and, utilising independent research partners to support and participate in a growing evidence and research base around suicide and mental health. This symposia will discuss the most recent research the construction industry has participated in to evaluate and enhance psychosocial safety at work.
Psychosocial hazard’s; impacts on construction workers mental health.
Published, validated scales were used to gather information about psychosocial hazards and factors, general mental health (GMH) using and past and future suicide ideation from 2,715 workers on construction sites in Queensland. Bayesian networks (BNs), were used to explore how work-related stressors (high demands and low resources), GMH and past and future suicide ideation interplay to influence one another, and to quantify strength of these connections or relationships. Validation and sensitivity analyses were also performed to confirm the robustness and practical relevance of the BN model. With resulting indicating a 72% accuracy rate in predicting general mental health outcomes among workers.
MATES Bullying Toolbox, Supervisor, and Apprentices’ resilience training.
The MATES Apprentices’ training intervention program was developed to address industry concerns about bullying and poor mental health in construction industry apprentices. The program is comprised of Toolbox, Supervisor, and Apprentices’ resilience training. The Australian Institute for Suicide Research and Prevention applied a two-Phase strategy to evaluate the training, with significant improvements demonstrated from pre- to post-training in Phase 1. Results will be presented for Phase 1 and Phase 2 (still underway).
Evaluation of the MATES Respond Program (Postvention and critical incident peer support).
This interim report provides preliminary insights into the impact of the MATES Respond training program, designed to enhance participants' capabilities in handling critical incidents or suicides within the workplace by connecting to the event, understanding the event, and assisting workers and the site. Evaluating responses from 119 participants through pre- and post-training surveys and semi-structured interviews, findings reveal significant improvements in understanding and confidence of participants in the MATES Responder role. A notable enhancement was observed in participant confidence in leading discussions on grief and loss, increasing from 62% pre-training to 92% post-training.