Capel C.S implement HSE’s Working Minds Campaigns “Talking Toolkits” with their workforce

By Capel C.S

More than 1 in 3 rail construction workers meet the clinical criteria for a mental health condition, revealed a survey published late last year by The Rail Safety and Standards Board (RSSB).

The Health & Safety Executive (HSE) also revealed that 822,000 workers suffered work-related stress, depression or anxiety in 2021.

As a UK Employer, we have a legal duty to care for our employee’s health & safety: including their mental health. As a team, we continue to strive to put not only our employees’ health and safety first, but even the public’s where we can (e.g. carrying out on-site works).

However these days, it takes a lot of changes and opening”taboo” topics up, to truly help break the stigma around struggling with mental health, particularly as an employer within the construction industries.

Recently, we began to implement HSE’s Working Minds Campaigns “Talking Toolkits” within our workforce and taking in other measures around the objective, e.g.training our H&S management inFirst Aid Mental Health.

Last year, our employees took iHASCO’s CPD Mental HealthAwareness Training to learn techniques around managing stress, anxiety, learn to support fellow colleagues as well as learn to ask for support from employers.

However, we would be naive if we did not admit that this is only the start; and we believe this is the case for many employers in the industry. In these upcoming years, we will aim to work towards achieving the ISO 45003 accreditation, continue to improve our employees’ wellbeing and help educate others using our voice as an employer.

In August this year, we were asked by Greater Anglia to support works and donations for the “Man Shed” at Boxted (Essex) for the UK Men’s Sheds Association, a movement setup primarily to help men with their mental health, by providing them with a safe space to go and “Tinker”.

Whether you are a man suffering with depression, PTSD, dealing with anxiety or anything affecting your mental health, this space aims to provide a community for people to connect, converse and create.

You can find the nearest man’s shed available to you or your family via their website here.

Please join us in proactively making a change in our industry by shining a light on not only the importance of mental health, but how to actually support it too.

Click here for more details about Capel C.S.

Photo credit: Capel C.S.

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