Independent charity Mates in Construction visited Mount Gambier last week to provide support and training for companies regarding suicide in the construction and allied industries.
Mates in Construction Field Officers Patrick Kukla and Marilyn Sheffield presented an Onsite General Awareness Training Session at the Grant District Council works depot.
The session was tailored for the construction industry and focused on statistics, signs to watch out for, reducing stigma and early intervention, including how to get help and take action.
It followed a series of suicides in the Limestone Coast during the past few months.
Mates in Construction has a mission to reduce the number of suicides in the Australian construction and allied industries, with an average of 190 Australians in the construction industry taking their own lives each year.
They are committed to developing a community-supported approach to early intervention and suicide prevention, with all field officers trained in suicide intervention skills.
“It’s absolutely crucial that we do not just highlight the fact there’s a big problem with suicide as it pertains to the construction and allied industries,” Mr Kukla said.
“It’s also important that we respond in a way that does not just put a service on the ground, but actually empowers people in the construction and allied industries to support each other, to help each other, look for those signs when things are starting to go wrong and actually start to connect with the services that already exist in the region.”
Ms Sheffield said the regions were not supported enough and they needed to get this support out to everybody.
“Being in the regions it’s so much harder because you’re isolated and if there’s one suicide in the community everybody knows about it and it affects everybody,” she said.
“People need help in the regions just as much as they do in the CBD.”
Mr Kukla said the group was grateful for the Primary Health Network which supported them to provide their free services and training to the region and they would be visiting regularly.
“We’re going to continue to have an ongoing relationship with Mount Gambier and the regions,” he said.
“And start to really push that message out about the idea that mates can help mates with their mental health and the struggles they have.”
