The Lighthouse Club is calling on companies and sites across the island of Ireland to contact them if they would like a visit from the ‘Hard Hat’ tour team.
Help Inside the Hard Hat is a campaign from the Lighthouse Construction Industry Charity to raise awareness of mental wellbeing in the industry. The campaign signposts to the many charitable resources available to proactively support mental, physical and financial wellbeing for the construction community.
To deliver the charity’s messages directly to those in need support The Help Inside the Hard Hat campaign is going on tour for a week across Ireland from October 10-14.
There will also be a great range of prizes and freebies up for grabs for those taking part.
With a mission that ‘no construction worker or their family should be alone in a crisis’ the tour aims to deliver the message directly to frontline workers along with information about the crucial services the charity provides.
The Help Inside the Hard Hat team are all fully trained mental health first aiders with a down to earth approach and firsthand life experiences in construction.
Bill Hill, CEO of Lighthouse Construction Charity, said: “There is a marked increase in suicides within the trades and our unskilled labour force. Over 50 per cent of this workforce are either self-employed, agency workers or on zero hour contracts and are often part of the sub contracted labour force on our construction sites.
“This suggests that communication about the support services we have available are simply not getting through to these workers and they are the ones that need us the most.”
In Ireland and the UK, two construction workers take their own lives every working day and stress, anxiety and depression account for a fifth of all work-related illnesses.
The charity’s Help Inside the Hard Hat campaign has already helped to raise vital awareness of poor mental health within the industry. Over 50,000 posters have been downloaded and sites have shared the campaign message on site hoardings.
The campaign has also seen the Help Inside the Hard Hat message on vehicles, mobile working platforms and cranes. More information and to request a visit from the Hard Hat tour team go to www.constructionindustryhelpline.com/hithh-on-site
