Sparky shines a light on suicide prevention
Suicide prevention and mental health are buzzwords that we hear way too often in the current climate.
One local tradie is here to change that. He is campaigning for a change in mental health legislation as suicide rates soar throughout the Australian mining and construction industries.
When you first meet Neuronirvana founder Ryan Baker, he doesn’t strike you as the standard “wellness coach” type. Sporting a mop of long wavy hair, and dressed in boardies, he looks more suited to the surf than a mining boardroom.
Five minutes in and you will realise that Ryan Baker is far from “standard” in any context.
Mr Baker has been trying to establish new legislation that would force mining and construction companies to address the mental health of their employees.
Is the mining and construction safety culture destroying the mental health of its workers?
Yes, according to Mr Baker.
He believes that miners and construction workers are susceptible to developing depression and anxiety due to industry workplace safety culture.
According to Mr Baker, rigid safety training and regulations condition workers to constantly search for risks and hazards throughout their day.
This results in the neurological pathways in their brains to become “trained” to always seek out the negative.
Mr Baker said that this learned behaviour continued well after the end of shift, causing employees to become depressed as they habitually seek out the negative aspects of their lives.
“I realized that from the moment you get to work at 6 a.m. – the first thing you do is look at your job and look for all the hazards,” Mr Baker said.
“You’re writing down every single thing that is negative – every single thing that could hurt you – all the time.
“Then you wonder why when you go back and sit in your room at camp, or when you go home – why you are suddenly automatically looking for what’s wrong in your life,” he said.
Mr Baker said that the mining and construction industries have overlooked mental health in favour of physical safety. He believes that this needs to be changed, and now.
“In WA, which is the worst, you’re eight times more likely to die of a suicide on-site than what you are a workplace incident,” Mr Baker said.
“Legislation says they have to do the safety, but there’s no legislation now for mental health, which I think is absolutely crazy,” he said.
The statistics seem to support this. 75% of all suicides in Australia are males. And if we consider occupation, construction and mining labourers, construction tradesmen and mining tradesmen are the top three. They are considered to be “the deadliest jobs in Australia”.
What is the key to suicide prevention among our tradies?
To reduce suicides Neuronirvana has developed a number of programs for workers to use when they experience emotional difficulties.
Whilst other organisations have addressed mental health across the mining and construction industries, Mr Baker said that Neuronirvana is the first to focus on prevention.
Mr Baker believes that other organisations such as Mates in Construction and Mates in Mining are fantastic initiatives. However, their focus is more on offering support in times of need. Neuronirvana focuses on preventing workers from getting to that point.
And there is a good reason behind this.
The CEO of Mates In Construction Chris Lockwood was recently quoted as saying “We don’t stick our hands up and say I need help”. Mr Baker agrees.
“In the studies that I researched, 44 per cent of males will not – they just will not talk to anyone about what’s going on. Because it is perceived as weak, you know?” Mr Baker said.
The premise behind Neuronirvana is to help those who simply will not “stick their hand up”. The tools and methods in the programs aim to give workers an immediate lifeline that they can access 24 hours a day.
Simple techniques that can change lives.
Simply learning techniques such as meditation, gratitude and breathing techniques can save lives says Mr Baker.
“There is a study where they just got a person who was very anxious and they got someone to copy their breath,” he said.
“And just by copying their breath, they too became very anxious.
“Breathing is amazing.
“It’s so funny that it is something that is so important to us for life – you can’t go more than a few minutes without breathing.
“Yet, are we taught to breathe? We’re not,” he said.
Mr Baker recently presented his program to Queensland mining industry executives. The result was a warm reception and resounding support.
He is to meet with mining unions in coming days to continue his push for legislative changes.
If you would like to learn more about mental health issues in the mining and construction industries, be sure to check out the websites of Neuronirvana and Mates In Construction.
Here at Local Approvals, we are working hard on suicide prevention in our industry. We are working on a very special venture to target the battle of men’s mental health and we look forward to sharing it with you in the coming months.
