This year’s Mental Health Awareness Week is May 18-24, and to support the campaign’s theme of ‘kindness’, the Lighthouse Construction Industry Charity is hosting a series of free online lunchtime mental health training workshops.
From mindfulness and meditation, to resilience and controlling stress, anyone working in construction can take part in these bite-sized online sessions. The interactive courses will start at 13.30pm each day and last for 45 minutes.
To take part, all you need is access to an email address and the internet, whether via a smartphone, tablet or laptop.
Course Information
- May 18 – Coping with stress – This will cover pressure and stress, causes, coping mechanisms and how we can build our resilience to stress
- May 19 – Work, life balance – What is a good ‘work life balance’ and how to achieve it
- May 20 – Mindfulness – What is mindfulness about and how you can implement mindfulness into your day
- May 21 – Resilience – How to build resilience and top tips to take away to implement to keep your resilience growing
- May 22 – Meditation – A simple introduction to meditation from a construction professional explaining how a consistent practice can benefit your mental health every day.
Compared to this time last year, calls to the charity’s 24/7 Construction Industry Helpline have increased by 55%, reflecting the rising levels of anxiety and insecurity within the construction industry and the dramatic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Bill Hill, chief executive officer of the Lighthouse Construction Industry Charity, said: “Our mission is to ensure that no worker feels alone in a crisis and as part of our charitable giving, we look after the physical, mental and financial wellbeing of our construction community in the UK and Ireland. Now, more than ever we need to ensure that our construction families in crisis receive the support they need, and so the theme of ‘kindness’ for this year’s Mental Health Awareness Week resonates perfectly with us. We are delighted to be able to offer our wellbeing workshops completely free of charge to help our industry during this very difficult time.
If you need support now, or know someone that does, the charity provides a 24/7 Construction Industry Helpline – UK 0345 605 1956 and ROI 1800 939 122, which is the first point of contact to access a range of free and confidential support services including: emergency financial aid, advice on welfare and mental wellbeing, and support on legal, tax and debt management matters.
If you’re not ready to talk, then there is the helpline mobile app, which helps people who are experiencing stress, anxiety or depression, as well as providing access to other areas of support, such as anger management, drug and alcohol dependency, debt management, legal advice, and emergency financial aid.
