A project director has opened up about his own experience of suicidal thoughts while working abroad and how he found the support he needed.
Mick Butler, a project director at ISG, appeared on the video to talk about how he experienced a sudden breakdown.
He found help through the employee assistance programme and a counsellor helped him to identify what had triggered the breakdown. By working through the causes and writing them down, Butler managed to make sense of the issues he was experiencing and started to find ways to improve his mental health. These include getting exercise, which Porter says helped to make him feel better.
He added that it is important for people working in construction to take care of their own mental health in order to be ready to help others.
He said: “If you are on a plane, and the oxygen mask comes down, you have got to put your own on before you can help anybody else. That’s the same thing with your own mental health. You’ve got to put your own mask on, help yourself, and then you can help others because you are in a better place to do it.”
Porter’s message came following World Suicide Prevention Day earlier this month (10 September). The rates of suicide in construction are three times higher than in other sectors, which has prompted efforts from across the industry to improve mental health in the sector.
For details of where you can find free, confidential support services if you or someone you know needs help or support, go to the Mates in Mind website.
Comments
Comments are closed.
At the end of last year, I was under intense pressure at work and dealing with the separation from my partner. My boss was less than supportive for her own reasons.
I expected more from the NHS where I worked but it can be dog eat dog here. When she said, that I should forget about my family problems and concentrate on work, I realised I had opened up to someone who for their own reasons was unable to fathom how I felt. Instead, I faced constant criticism, undermining and micro-management that I imagine was due to her fearing that if my project failed that it would look poorly on her. My mental health deteriorated. I was a mess. In the darkest moment, I very nearly did not make it.
I should have taken time off well before I got to that point, but the feeling of responsibility to the project, to get it done and most importantly to keep my job kept me at work.
Counselling was liberating. I figured not only myself out, but also my boss and her possible motives for being such a poor manager. Deciding that the job if it came down to it was not important was most important. Nothing is worth feeling how I did.
I am now much better although I am not through the woods by any stretch, I am more self contained, risk averse in disclosing problems, and I certainly do not trust my boss to do anything but act towards improving her career.
When the time is right, I will resign and with regards to the job, and my boss, I couldn’t really couldn’t care less.