Building Mental Health Alliance
The Building Mental Health Alliance (BMHA) is a collaboration of construction organisations (federations, trade bodies, professional bodies, trade unions, and large contractors) in Northern Ireland who have come together to launch an initiative aimed at improving the mental health of all workers in the construction industry.
CITB NI are an integral part of the BMHA and Barry Neilson OBE, Chief Executive said, "Mental health within the construction industry is a growing issue. The establishment of the BMHA is a positive step forward to work collectively together as a sector to raise awareness of mental health issues that exist in the construction industry and signpost for support, training and guidance. CITB NI will continue to work within the Alliance and support their initiatives in order to make mental health a priority."
Signposting Service
One of the major outcomes of the BMHA has been the development of an innovative signposting service for the mental health of workers in the construction sector. The service takes both a proactive and reactive approach and is accessed by the QR code above or web page link https://www.nisg.org.uk/building-mental-health
The reactive element called ‘Get Help Now 24/7’ points to 3 organisations that run crisis helplines. A caller can get access to a person at any time of the night or day.
The proactive element called ‘Signposts to other help, support and information’ lists organisations that provide a variety of services such as family/friend support, self-help, addictions etc.
Another signpost points to employer services and organisations can download the QR code for use in their corporate communications.
Workers in our industry are our greatest resource and it is incumbent on all of us to do what we can to support those in distress as well as being proactive in encouraging worker wellbeing.
With support of the industry this initiative will develop through the use of the QR code and the BMHA would encourage construction companies (both large and small) to avail of the free materials and promote the signposting service.
For further information or to suggest an organisation who should be included in the signposting service contact Ernie Spence at
[email protected].
BMHA is a construction industry initiative supported by a number of contractors, trade bodies and federations in the sector. The webpage is hosted by Northern Ireland Safety Group.