OzHelp builds on mental health and wellbeing

The OzHelp Foundation has announced the launch of a new program aimed at preventing suicide and supporting mental health in the building and construction industry: the Health in Trades program (HiT).

According to OzHelp, nine Australians, on average, die by suicide every day. Of all these deaths, 75 per cent are men, and construction workers are consistently found to die by suicide at a higher rate compared to other male workers.

OzHelp says it has had a long-standing commitment to delivering health and wellbeing services to Australia’s building and construction industry. Using its industry knowledge and customer and client relationships, OzHelp developed the HiT program stream to meet the continually evolving needs of the sector.

OzHelp’s partnerships and engagement director Caz Parish says with the shift in the minimum standards expected of employers in managing psychological risks in the workplace, employers are now playing an active role in providing genuine care and support to their people and preventing harm.

“Through data-informed decision-making and targeted interventions tailored to their workers’ needs, employers are looking beyond mental health advocacy and how as an organisation they can practically prevent psychological harm within the workplace,” says Parish.

“We have developed evidence-based, scalable and accessible programs that assist employers in creating resilient, psychological safe workplaces and helping individual employees achieve their best possible mental health and wellbeing.”

OzHelp is accredited under the Australian Government National Standards for Mental Health Services. Several core initiatives to the HiT program also received accreditation under the Suicide Prevention Australia Accreditation Program in late 2022.

Programs such as the Tradie Tune Up (onsite health checks), counselling and wellbeing support services, and the Workplace Tune Up program were evaluated against six national suicide prevention standards to ensure they are targeted, outcomes-based, and provide a consistent, high-quality and safe standard of care.

For more information, visit www.healthintrades.com.au