MATES in Construction and BRANZ co-released the research that was recently conducted across the industry. This shows that construction workers are two times more likely to die by suicide than the rest of the workforce. The research identifies those at highest risk in our workforce by occupation and demographic data. This research is ground-breaking for our industry and New Zealand, it is the first piece that has done a deep dive into those that we lose to suicide. MATES will be looking at future interventions to target our at-risk groups and reaching further into our industry, this research is going to help MATES work alongside each worker to tackle this problem.
MATES in Construction NZ being an evidence-based workplace suicide prevention model, has been developed to reduce high suicide rates in the NZ Construction Industry. Learn more about their research here.
Feedback from site
Working shoulder to shoulder with the workforce, MATES has been able to gauge the impacts that our most recent lockdown is having. They have seen a lot of fear from workers about catching COVID-19 and taking it home to their families. This is due, in part, to the quick transition from our elimination strategy to one of suppression, and some of the confusion around what to do at different contact levels. MATES advise you to have a very clear plan of how you communicate, when there is a positive case on site. MATES have their our own internal protocol and if you need any help, let them know.
The MATES team are here for you and your teams, please drop them a line anytime.
