As a response to the wellbeing issues reported to its 24/7 helpline, the Lighthouse Construction Industry Charity has announced that it will deliver £20,000 of free mental health and wellbeing training to the industry for the remainder of 2020.
One of the key findings of the charity’s recently published 2019 Impact Report was that 62% of emergency financial grants were to pay for daily living costs, paying bills and clearing rent arrears and debt. Financial wellbeing is one of the key factors affecting mental health and the introduction of ‘bang on budget’ financial management sessions, aims to directly address these issues.
The fallout of Covid-19 has also seen an increasing number of redundancies across the industry. The charity has therefore created to two sessions aimed at improving employability with ‘At the Interview’ and a ‘CV Workshop’.
Bill Hill, CEO of the Lighthouse Construction Industry Charity, said, ”A crucial element of our strategy is to pro-actively support the industry’s mental wellbeing and ensure the widespread availability of construction focussed training programmes.
”These range from hour-long interactive wellbeing sessions through to the full two-day, MHFA-England-approved Mental Health First Aider course. This will ensure that companies have easy access to a robust wellbeing strategy to support every level of their organisation from the boots on the ground workforce through to senior management.
”We are a CITB approved training organisation (ATO) which means that our courses are delivered to a defined and industry-agreed training standard and most are CPD accredited ensuring they contribute to personal career and professional development.”
The charity is also offering its Company Supporters priority access to the MHFA England half-day Mental Health Awareness course and two-day Mental Health First Aider courses.
Bill Hill added, “Offering these courses free of charge removes the final barrier for many smaller construction organisations to access these valuable and much needed training courses. Our focus is to continually develop and expand our pro-active wellbeing education and training programmes, alongside the immediate reactive support provided by our 24/7 Construction Industry Helpline and accompanying app.
”Thanks to the generosity of our industry support, we can make our charitable services accessible to everyone so that we can achieve our mission in ensuring that no worker or their family are alone in a crisis.”
