1 in 4 British adults will experience at least one diagnosable mental health problem in any one year with 44% of employers seeing a rise in reported problems estimated to cost them around £26 billion and sadly, a
construction worker completes suicide every 2 days, more than any other professional sector. Lendlease has long recognized that health is as important as safety and took the decision to commit to improving health
within the construction and civil engineering industries by signing up to the Public Health Responsibility Deal in October 2013. As a consequence of this, a Health Core Group was established to lead the Lendlease Health
Strategy and various Health Workstreams. From the various Health Workstreams created initially, six were chosen as being the most popular and in need of particular further development with mental health being by
far the most popular. To lead the programme a dedicated Mental Health Task Force was created by bringing together a diverse range of Lendlease employees giving them full ownership.
The Task Force’s first objective was to work at raising the overall awareness levels of mental health within our business and industry and, to this end; it was decided to train internal Mental Health First Aiders (MHFAs).
Mental Health First Aid is an educational course designed to teach people how to identify, understand and help a person who may be developing a mental health issue. In the same way as we learn physical first aid, Mental
Health First Aid teaches how to recognise the crucial early warning signs.
Lendlease was the first Construction company to sign the Time to Change pledge and joined The City Mental
Health Alliance (CMHA).
