Building workers urged to ‘open up’

Construction workers are being encouraged to ask their colleagues “are you OK?” as new figures show “startlingly” high levels of suicides among men working in and around the industry.

‘Mind Our Workers’, a joint report and campaign by the Construction Industry Federation and suicide prevention organisation Pieta House, found that an estimated 1,039 men from a construction/production background died by suicide between 2008 and 2012. That was almost half the total of 2,137 male suicides between those years.

“The level of suicide in the construction sector has been startling,” said CIF director general Tom Parlon. “As an industry we can’t ignore this problem — there is a necessity to help those in need.”