Shining a light on our recent project for a special charity alongside Greater Anglia: The UK Men’s Sheds Association. A company with the mission to support & help men’s mental health.
More than 1 in 3 rail construction workers meet the clinical criteria for a mental health condition, revealed a survey published late last
year by The Rail Safety and
Standards Board (RSSB).
The Health & Safety Executive (HSE) also revealed that 822,000 workers suffered work-related stress, depression or anxiety in 2021.
As a UK Employer, we have a legal duty to care for our employee’s health & safety: including their mental health.
As a team, we continue to strive to put not only our employees’ health and safety first, but even the public’s where we can (e.g. carrying out onsite works). However these days, it takes a lot of changes and opening “taboo” topics up, to truly help break the stigma around struggling with mental health, particularly as an employer within the construction industries.
Recently, we began to implement HSE’s Working Minds Campaigns “Talking Toolkits” within our workforce and taking in other measures around the objective, e.g. training our H&S management in First Aid Mental Health.
We kept flexible working for our employees too so they can work from home when not required onsite or at occasional team meetings in the office which has helped our employees’ overall wellbeing.
Last year, our employees took
iHASCO’s CPD Mental Health
Awareness Training to learn techniques around managing stress, anxiety, learn to support fellow colleagues as well as learn to ask for support from employers.
However, we would be naive if we did not admit that this is only the start…And we believe this is the case for many employers in the industry.
In these upcoming years, we will aim to work towards achieving the ISO 45003 accreditation, continue to improve our employees’ wellbeing and help educate others using our voice as an employer.
In August this year, we were asked by Greater Anglia to support works and donations for the “Man Shed” at Boxted (Essex) for the UK Men’s Sheds Association, a movement set
up primarily to help men with their mental health, by providing them with a safe space to go and “Tinker”.
Whether you are a man suffering with depression, PTSD, dealing with anxiety or anything affecting your mental health, this space aims to provide a community for people to connect, converse and create.
Helping reduce the feeling of
loneliness, isolation and most
importantly, providing a space for fun, there are currently 575 sheds in the UK and around 13,766 families benefiting from their use.
You can find the nearest man’s shed available to you or your
family via their website.
Please join us in proactively
making a change in our industry
by shining a light on not only the importance of mental health, but how to actually support it too.
For more information on Capel C.S Ltd, please visit
us at www.capelcsltd.com