Beyondblue takes mental messages out West
Beyondblue is taking its mental health services on the road, offering help to thousands of miners in Western Australia's Pilbara.
Representatives from the organisation have been travelling throughout the country to raise awareness about mental health.
But the trip was fairly limited, as the group did not have funding to extend the trip into mine sites.
BHP Billiton, Rio Tinto and Woodside have now stepped in, providing extra funds to see the service travel to several mine sites, camps and townships during May.
The beyondblue Pilbara roadshow will begin with talks at BHP Billiton Iron Ore’s Port Hedland operations this week, before heading to all five of its mine sites and employee accommodations near the townships of Port Hedland and Newman.
Beyondblue's Georgie Harman has told the ABC that the nature of mining work makes the workforce more susceptible to mental illness.
“We want to raise awareness of the fact that no-one is 10-foot [tall] and bulletproof,” she said.
“Depression and anxiety can happen to anyone of us at any point of our lives and that can be caused by a range of factors, not just your workplace or your working conditions.
“FIFO (fly-in, fly-out) life contains a perfect storm of what we call risk factors for mental ill health, so feelings of loneliness and isolation, poor quality relationships, when they come together can put you at risk of poor mental health.
“We're wanting to get the message out there to the mining companies themselves that investing in the mental health of their workers is probably the best investment they can make.
“We know that untreated mental illness in the workplace costs Australian businesses just shy of $11 billion a year.”
Pat Bourke, BHP Billiton's Mt Whaleback mine's general manager, told reporters that mental health issues are some of the most serious but under-realised risks of remote work.
“Working and living so close together means, even more so, that we need to look out for each other, when health issues are of concern to the broader community, they are inevitably a concern to our workers as well,” he said.
“Really it's to be proactive and I really like how beyondblue [uses] the phrase; ‘Make the first step’.
“For me, it's around that early prevention, I personally feel that will make the difference and this program supports that early prevention, it's another avenue in which people can reach out.
“Whether it be on a web-based application or whether it be a one-on-one personal counselling session, it's just another opportunity for people to reach out and that's what the whole program is about, another option that people might otherwise not reach out for.”