Mick Bowles

Australia's construction industry has a 46% higher suicide rate than Australia's general population. A single fatality by suicide can shut down a workplace for days, significantly impacting productivity and workplace morale. In recent years, there has been more focus on the mental health of the construction industry workers, attributed to the growing awareness of the high costs of poor mental health due to reduced work time and diminished productivity. However, research into workplace suicide is limited. The impetus for this project is to investigate how workplace suicide impacts a person, their employer and the industry.

Every year, 190 Australians working in the construction industry take their own lives; this means we lose a construction worker every second day to suicide. For workers in the construction industry, suicide seems to be a part of the reality of working in the industry. Work within the industry is highly transient, with most workers employed on a project-by-project basis for a few weeks to, at best, a few years. My research aims to improve mental health in the high-stress industry by highlighting the real impacts on construction industry people, culture and even project bottom lines.

External organisations whom I am collaborating with:

• MATES in Construction
• Roses in the Ocean
• The Australian Institute of Building