More contractors are being urged to train managers to identify poor mental health among staff after new figures revealed more than a quarter of workers had experienced suicidal thoughts.
A survey from the Chartered Institute of Building (CIOB), backed by charity Mates in Mind and launched this morning (12 May) to coincide with Mental Health Awareness Week, found that 27 per cent of construction workers had thought about suicide at least once over the past year.
The biggest triggers for stress were “too much work” and “poor communication”, the survey found.
A lack of privacy on site, inadequate toileting facilities, noise levels and poor catering facilities were also cited as adding to stress.
The findings from the survey among 865 workers were included in a new report. The report is a follow-up to a study in 2020.
Poor mental health has long been identified in the construction sector as a problem and is referred to in the report as a “silent crisis”.
In England and Wales, provisional figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) showed that 355 people working in skilled construction and building trades died by suicide in 2024, the report said.
Daisie Barnett, the CIOB’s policy development manager and the report’s author, said: “In an ideal world, nobody working in the industry would experience any mental wellbeing concerns at all.
“While that vision might be slightly unrealistic, CIOB believes there is still far more the industry and government can do to support the people working in the construction sector.”
Among the report’s recommendations, contractors are being called on to “train management in identifying and managing poor mental health”.
It said monthly one-to-one check-in meetings should be held that “focus on mental wellbeing”. Fatigue management plans should also be implemented, the report recommended.
Among some positive findings in the survey, more than half of people said they had access to a mental health first aider at work if they needed help.
For the wider built environment sector, the report urged mental health provisions to be included in construction contracts to “help support and normalise discussions around mental health”. These provisions could include training staff in mental health first aid and introducing flexible working arrangements.
It also said that the tendering process should reward contractors and developers who are “taking proactive approaches to improving mental health and wellbeing within their workplace”.
This could include awarding extra points in the tendering process for firms that are addressing mental health.
Among the report’s recommendations for the government, the CIOB said ministers should use the proposed Men’s Health Strategy – unveiled last November by health secretary Wes Streeting – to tackle the issue.
The CIOB report said the strategy should include a dedicated section which focusses on a “tailormade approach for each high-risk sector, such as construction”.
Mates in Mind managing director Sam Downie said: “Educating all employees and workers across your supply chain to spot the signs of mental ill-health, have the confidence to start a conversation about it and be able to signpost further support, is crucial.
It is through normalising conversations about mental health, that we are able to address the stigma that surrounds it, and it is education, and practice of course, that gives people the confidence to start those important conversations.”
A Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson said: “Through our Plan for Change, we are moving care out of hospital and into the community including by investing in talking therapies to support an extra 380,000 patients, on top of £26m for new mental health crisis centres, and we will also create a network of mental health hubs.
“As part of our shift towards prevention, we will ensure mental health gets the same focus as physical health.”