‘Harden up’ is not helping
Of all the groups to experience high rates of suicide, one would not expect construction workers to be top of the list. But those received stereotypes are arguably part of the problem.
Many people will have been shocked or surprised by reporting from the Suicide Mortality Review Committee that showed the construction sector has the highest suicide rate of all industries in New Zealand. The committee found 6.9 per cent of suicides come from construction, narrowly ahead of 6.8 per cent from farming and forestry.
Mental health among farmers and rural workers has become better understood in recent times. Young Farmers chief executive Terry Copeland talked in 2017 of the need for rural men to share their emotional stories. Young Farmers has organised ‘‘GoodYarn’’ wellness workshops to shine light on the subject of depression. Farmers have talked about isolation, economic pressures and unpredictable weather as contributing factors to the rural mental health crisis.
Attention has now turned to construction. A report for the Building Research Association of New Zealand (Branz) by Kate Bryson and Anne Duncan outlines several possible reasons why suicide rates are so high in this sector.
The most common response from those interviewed was that construction has a macho, bullying and homophobic culture. Respondents said phrases like ‘‘take a concrete pill and harden up’’ are commonplace, although they added that the bullying and harassment of apprentices that was once almost standard is now less tolerated.
Business owners are just as likely to suffer from ‘‘harden up’’ culture as employers, especially as so much status is invested in companies named after owners. The sector’s boom-and-bust cycles also contribute to pressure and insecurity and are seen as an important contributing factor to high rates of depression.
Other factors include the prevalence of drug and alcohol use in the sector. The authors also identified that construction attracts ‘‘high-risk individuals’’ in part because of perceptions it is a poor career path. They found an intergenerational and ethnically diverse workforce is another source of pressure when there is often an intolerance of diversity in workplaces.
There was also a sense, they learned, that ‘‘industry currently doesn’t know enough about what is going on and why’’. Even some construction workers interviewed seemed surprised by the high suicide rates, though others were not.
This report follows more detailed work in Australia that has produced similar findings. There, construction workers are six times more likely to die by suicide than in a workplace accident, and twice as likely to commit suicide as the general population.
In New Zealand, the next step is to study the coroner’s findings of suicide by construction workers between 2007 and 2017, a reported 339 cases. It is important to move from the ‘‘why?’’ to the ‘‘what next?’’ As well as saving lives, mental health awareness in the workplace can have a positive economic benefit. Another finding from Australia is that for every dollar spent on mental health in the workplace, $2.30 is saved due to the increased productivity that comes with reduced absenteeism.
It is clear New Zealand lags far behind Australia in recognising a mental health crisis among construction workers. But the sector is taking important steps forward. Concrete pills are not enough.
‘‘Business owners are just as likely to suffer from ‘harden up’ culture as employers ...’’