Health, safety and wellbeing are important issues for the construction sector. Definitions for the three terms are below.

• Health: "A state of complete physical, mental and social wellbeing and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity." World Health Organization
• Safety: "A state in which or a place where you are safe and not in danger or at risk." Cambridge Dictionary
• Wellbeing: "An individual's ongoing state which enables a person to thrive." British Safety Council

While the UK construction industry continues to review the processes and procedures it has in place to manage the safety of professionals, strategies to improve and support the mental health and wellbeing of workers are less developed.

Figures from the Chartered Institute of Building (CITB) show that the industry suffers from higher levels of both work-related ill health and suicide than many other sectors.

Understanding Mental Health in the Built Environment, a 2019 report produced by CITB, found stress to be the most common mental health issue experienced among construction professionals – some 97% of respondents to the survey conducted for the report said that they had experienced stress. 

Meanwhile, research conducted by Deloitte found that the cost of poor mental health to UK employers in the 2020-21 financial year – through a combination of absenteeism, presenteeism and labour turnover – grew by 25% in comparison with figures from 2019, reaching an estimated annual total of £53-56bn.

Some of the main factors that may contribute to high levels of mental ill-health in construction are shown in the graphic below.

Many of these factors are often seen as ‘cultural norms’ in the construction industry, as is the idea that workers should ‘get on with things’ and not speak up if they are struggling mentally or emotionally.

Many of the risk factors affecting construction workers are exacerbated when work is undertaken in remote or extreme environments, where construction teams spend extensive periods away from home and live in close proximity with their colleagues. 

ISWAN, the International Seafarers’ Welfare and Assistance Network, has identified the risks to mental health for those working in the maritime industry, as shown in the graphic below.

Many of these risks are equally applicable to engineers and construction workers assigned to remote projects, examples of which can include offshore structures such as wind farms, anything located in Antarctica on remote islands or in deserts, or construction of roads and power plants in developing countries where access doesn’t yet exist.

Panos Stavrakakis, head of the Centre of Organisational Health and Wellbeing at the UK’s HSE Science and Research Centre, says: “Think of a place where you are at work 24/7. Even when you’re resting from work, it doesn’t mean you’re getting rest, because you’re still at your workplace. You don’t have weekends where you can get a break, and you don’t have a physical connection with your usual support network – your family and friends. In addition, the work is likely to be very demanding and you’re working in a harsh physical environment.”

Stephanie McLay, senior human factors consultant at Lloyd’s Register, agrees: “You are less likely to switch off at the end of the day when you are in an environment where you’re living, working and sleeping.”

McLay adds that for seafarers, interpersonal relationships are very important: “Unlike working ashore, if you’re having a problem with one of your colleagues, conflict can build as it is more difficult to stop thinking about that person. You have to share the same space most of the time for months – that’s a lot more challenging.”

Mobile phones and high-speed wifi make it easier for people working on projects in remote environments to stay in touch with family and friends back home, but not every site has this facility, and in some locations communication may be limited to short phone calls from a landline or mobile phone. 

Even if team members can talk to their loved ones as often as they like, this can bring its own problems, for example receiving bad news from home such as finding out that a family member is sick or dying. Missing key life events such as a child’s birthday or graduation can be difficult, as well as simply not being able to talk with friends and family when things are tough.

Many of these challenges can be exacerbated for people from diverse backgrounds. A lack of representation, micro-aggressions and unconscious bias – an implicit bias, stereotype or judgment – can all have an impact on mental health and psychological safety at work. It is important, therefore, to consider the intersection between diversity and inclusion and mental health.

In November 2021, the UK’s Health and Safety Executive (HSE) launched the Working Minds campaign to encourage employers to promote good mental health at work. The campaign aims to help businesses to recognise the signs of work-related stress and make tackling mental health issues routine.

At the initiative's launch, HSE chief executive Sarah Albon called for a culture change to ensure that psychological risks were treated the same as physical ones in health and safety risk management. “Work-related stress and poor mental health should be treated with the same significance as risks of poor physical health and injury,” she said. “Significant and long-term stress can limit performance and have an impact on personal lives.”

Meanwhile, Mates in Mind, a UK charity raising awareness and addressing the stigma of poor mental health, has produced a stress response curve, shown below. The curve indicates how levels of stress can affect an individual’s performance at work and their personal wellbeing.

HSE used the launch of the Working Minds campaign to remind businesses that employers have a legal duty to assess risks in the workplace for psychological safety, not just physical safety. Along with its partner organisations, it has produced resources to help employers understand their responsibilities and develop strategies to reduce the risk of stress and mental ill-health.

Professor Neil Greenberg, chair of the occupational psychiatry special interest group at the Royal College of Psychiatrists, says: “Good mental health is just as important as good physical health, so it’s vital that employers do all they can to promote it in the workplace. Employees should be given appropriate support to help minimise the likelihood of experiencing work-related mental health problems and be supported in their treatment and recovery if they develop or live with a mental illness.”

A 2020 study found that the most effective teams were those with high levels of psychological safety built through interactions and knowledge exchanges with other members of the team. In such working conditions, teammates can express themselves without the fear that others will think less of them.

In June 2021, the International Organization for Standards (ISO) published ISO 45003:2021 Occupational health and safety management – Psychological health and safety at work – Guidelines for managing psychosocial risks The document gives guidelines for managing psychosocial risk within an occupational health and safety (OH&S) management system based on ISO 45001. A psychosocial risk is the potential of a psychosocial hazard – such as work-related stress or lone working – to affect an individual’s health.

The standard enables organisations to prevent work-related injury and ill health and promote wellbeing at work, and is intended to be used in conjunction with ISO 45001, which contains requirements and guidance on planning, implementing and reviewing an OH&S management system. The publication of this standard indicates that psychological safety should become an integral part of an organisation’s OH&S management system.

When it comes to tackling the risk factors associated with health and wellbeing in remote and extreme environments, DRIFT – a project involving the University of Manchester, the Economic and Social Research Council, the Royal Geographical Society and the Coldhouse Collective – has identified a list of actions that can be taken to make life in these settings more tolerable and support behaviour, performance and health. These actions are shown in the below graphic. Some can be undertaken on an individual basis while others may require facilitation from managers and leaders.

The mental health and wellbeing of those working in the construction industry must be a priority. It is the duty of all professionals to make it so.