Not sure about mental health? Reach out.

September 13, 2021

en français

By / Jessica Kirby

The tide is turning on the way Canadians think about mental health. Once the unspeakable and misunderstood, more effective and forthright communication, education, and acceptance among employers, government, and the general public has shed light on this issue, which affects one in five Canadians. 

This awareness is also a sliver lining of the pandemic. The Centre for Addiction and Mental Health says 50% of Canadians reported worsening mental health since COVID began and a more recent survey said 81% of respondents reported that COVID has negatively affected their mental health. Of course, the increase isn’t the silver lining—the awareness is. The positive side of this dramatic uptick in feelings of worry, anxiety, and in some cases, depression, is that it is impossible to ignore. We are all affected, directly or otherwise, by mental health concerns, whether a spouse’s depression is creating a struggle in the family or the cashier at grocery world is snappy because she is anxious working with the public with an immune-compromised child at home. No matter how you look at it, the playing field has levelled when it comes to gender, age, and socioeconomic status, such that it has become abundantly clear that mental health concerns know no boundaries. But that also means no one is exempt from talking about it, which is a step in the right direction.

Individuals working in the construction industry have traditionally suffered disproportionately compared to other industries, with men taking the brunt of that affliction. Statistics Canada estimates that 33% of workers in the construction industry report poor mental health, and 64% would like their employers to do more to support mental health initiatives. 

According to a study conducted by Alberta Health Services, in 2007, one-third of trades people and labourers were directly affected by declining mental health, and a study done nine years later said construction workers were more likely to report heavy drinking and negative consequences relating to illicit drug use.

In British Columbia, WorkSafeBC reports that mental health claims for illnesses diagnosed by a psychologist or psychiatrist were up 25% between 2017 and 2019. Those numbers are consistent with those reported in the construction industries in Ontario and the Maritimes. 

In 2017-2018, the Ontario government conducted a study that analyzed opioid deaths by profession. Of those who were employed at the time of their deaths due to opioids, 31% worked in construction. This is consistent with statistics that say 43% of construction workers have suffered from musculoskeletal injuries on the job, and 25% of those received opioids to deal with the pain. 

Across the board, Canadian men aged 45-59 are also at the greatest risk of committing suicide, with one-third of deaths by suicide in the country being in that age group. Men have three times the rate of suicide women do, according to Statistics Canada, largely because they use more lethal means and have less interaction with the healthcare system. In the United States, the Center for Disease Control & Prevention (CDC) reports that construction has one of the highest suicide rates (49.4/100,000) across all industries, noting that more lives are lost per day from suicide than from all of OSHA’s Fatal Four Hazards (falls, electrical exposure, struck-by, and caught-in/between situations) combined.

There are many reasons mental health and addiction wrack the construction industry, including isolated worksites, limited distraction during free time, separation from family and friends, high prevalence of substance abuse, and dangerous, high-stress work. Among men, the problem compounds with perceptions that requests for help will be met with resistance or ridicule, prevalence of a “tough guy” persona (real or imagined), and anxiety about staying employed if concerns about mental health or addiction are voiced with employers. 

But construction is fighting back. Associations, employers, insurance providers, and government agencies are working hard to educate workers on the importance of speaking out when mental well-being is not up to par and to employers and teams to help reduce the stigma that has for so many years kept people alone in the dark. 

Although 2020 delivered an unprecedented number of mental health concerns and rates of depression, anxiety, and chronic worry (not to mention sending domestic abuse, unemployment, and divorce rates soaring), construction workers fared much better than other industries. 

Employment benefits company Morneau Shepell reports that Canada’s Mental Health Index—which represents the current state of mental health in comparison to a set, pre-2020 benchmark—was sitting at -10 in July of last year. According to that report, the lower the score the worse the mental health, but the highest scores in that period were observed in mining and oil and gas extraction (-6.1), real estate (-6.3), and construction (-7.2).

The intrinsic nature of construction work may have been the driver of this success. Isolation and financial loss or risk were the main reasons cited for declining mental health rates, and being declared essential may have been the saving grace for construction workers, who are generally well paid and work in teams. And even when employment rates bottomed out at 13.7%, construction workers remained in high demand. 

Of course, construction may have fared well against other industries, but from a birds-eye view that is because rates in other industries plummeted and not because construction rates improved. The men and women who power our industry and build our communities still need the help and support that education and communication deliver—that means it is time to reach out. 

Since it is defined by hard work, it is no surprise that Canada’s construction industry is tackling the job of understanding mental health and normalizing the conversation around prevention, treatment, and recovery. Like all difficult tasks, this is a group effort, and provincial and sector-specific agencies are producing and promoting resources to help. See the list below.

If you are suffering, reach out. If you know someone who is, reach out. And if you have something to offer, time to volunteer, or resources to support a cause… you know what to do. So do it today. 

Resources

National

British Columbia

  • BC Construction Safety Alliance | bccsa.ca
  • Vancouver Regional Construction Association | vrca.ca 

Alberta 

Saskatchewan 

Manitoba 

Ontario 

Quebec 

Nova Scotia 

New Brunswick 

Newfoundland 

  • Newfoundland CMHA | cmhanl.ca 
  • Newfoundland and Labrador Construction Safety Association | nlcsa.com

Prince Edward Island 

Yukon 

Northwest Territories 

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