Construction Sport: Founder of charity on how sports can help the industry with the UK’s worst suicide rate

Former construction worker Steve Kerslake is on a mission to help tackle mental health challenges in the industry with the UK’s highest suicide rate.

The 33-year-old who runs the charity Construction Sport believes that sport and exercise can be used as a conduit to elicit positive change in the building industry.

On average two construction workers kill themselves every working day in England and Wales.

Steve wants to change how the industry deals with the mental health of its workers.

Steve, who suffered PTSD after surviving an acid attack as a teenager, founded Construction Sport six years ago while working on the Crossrail Project.

“We organised a big walk from Reading to Shenfield over three days and it had a hugely positive effect on the guys I was walking with,” he told LondonWorld.

“I had issues myself in the past where I thought I needed to get involved with sport and exercise.

“I thought this is working for the guys I’m walking with so I thought we needed more of this.

Steve, who lives in Chelmsford in Essex,  now works with multiple sites and companies across London and Essex, delivering talks and organising various sporting events.

According to the latest figures from the Office for National Statistics, there is a higher rate of suicide among men working in construction than any other industry.

The rate is twice as high as in many other occupations.

A survey by charity Mates in Mind also found that two-thirds of employees in the industry believed stigma was a barrier to discussing their mental health.

“People come into our industry out of the military, the prison service, fire brigade, they’ve all come from traumatic backgrounds but construction will give them a job,” he explained.

“In a way we inherit a lot of people who have potentially experienced mental health issues.

“Being on site we witness a lot of fatalities and serious injuries on site and when there’s heavy equipment around injuries aren’t pretty.

“We need to make sure that we get the healthcare and support to people prior to these things happening to give people education to know that when these things do happen they’re mentally in a position that they can deal with it.

“At the moment that support is not there at all.

“We are doing everything we can using sport but at the same time trying to shake things up a little bit to make the companies in power know that we’re serious about this and that something needs to be done.”

Steve features in the We Are England documentary series on BBC One. Episode one, Coping in Construction, which covers the UK construction industry’s hidden mental health crisis.

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