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VANESSA LAURIE/Stuff
Klaus Ohlendorf, Kory Sweeney and Laura Crombie from Location Homes has created a Tradies Tools Down event being held at the TSB Stadium to encourage people in the construction industry to talk and help their wellbeing to prevent suicide.
After a tough year losing multiple people to suicide in the Taranaki construction industry, a local building company decided losing even one person was too many and wanted to do something about it.
The result is ‘Tradies Tools Down’, an event led by Klaus Ohlendorf, operations manager, Kory Sweeney, sales manager, and Laura Crombie, marketing manager, at Location Homes.
All construction industry companies will be asked to put the tools down between 3pm and 6pm on February 9, 2023 and go to the TSB Stadium in New Plymouth to listen to a selection of mental health advocate speakers followed by a beer and burger.
All attendees will be provided with the resources they need to take away with them in the form of a goodie bag and councillors, provided by Taranaki Retreat and Building Wellness Taranaki, will be onsite for anyone that needs support on the day.
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“The construction industry is a very high stress environment and as someone who has dealt with mental health struggles myself, you often feel like you’re alone, and it’s a very isolated place, and they feel like no one else is understands what you’re going through,” said Sweeney.
“But we’re trying to get the message out there that there are other people in the industry, and probably a lot of your peers, feeling, maybe not the exact same way you do, but along the same lines and just having those open conversations and breaking down that stigma of being a tough man.”
Mental health struggles in the construction sector has been a growing problem.
In 2019, figures from Mates in Construction showed the industry was reporting one suicide a week.
Covid then exacerbated it with isolation, supply chain pressures, growing costs, and now high interest rates, Sweeney said.
Research funded by the Building Research Levy in 2021 found construction workers are more than two times more likely than the rest of the New Zealand workforce to die by suicide.
The idea for Tradies Tools Down came from a conversation between Sweeney and marketing manager Laura Crombie after the third suicide in the industry this year.
Crombie suggested the tools down idea, and it grew from there.
“Then I caught up with Derek Drinkwater from Superior Stainless, and he took it to Building Wellness,” Sweeney said.
“Building Wellness were at their capacity dealing with the families, and so we took it on board to organise.”
The group hoped by kicking off 2023 with an event like this it would help people in the industry go into the new year with a better mindset.
Ohlendorf said they hoped to get clubs on board as well to offer days at golf clubs or mountain bike parks to encourage people to get outdoors and out of their head.
“I think having a slightly more relaxed atmosphere for people to come along, have a keynote speaker and stand next to their peers, and talk about it amongst each other will hopefully break the stigma of the construction industry and mental health.
“And then, ideally, we have the odd person that dots off and utilises our resources and that’s the starting process for someone.”
SIMON O’CONNOR/STUFF
The Taranaki Retreat holds those who are struggling with their mental health “safe”, and has done so for more than 5000 people in the last four years. (First published in August 2021.)
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