Mental health: Building help for men’s ‘forgotten problem’
In an industry where blokes are expected to just “put their big boy pants on” the dangers are more than just physical.
SA News
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Simon Tyler knew there was a mental-health crisis in the construction industry. He knew because he spent years on the tools watching the men around him suffer in silence.
The situation worried Mr Tyler so much, he enrolled and completed a psychology degree and now works with the industry to help shine a light on a “forgotten problem”
The University of SA PhD candidate said a number of elements made those who worked in construction particularly vulnerable to mental-health issues.
“There are some really big challenges in construction,” Mr Tyler said.
“It’s a transient industry, with a fair bit of instability and a really high-pressure environment. I think people forget about that. You’ve got these blokes who are working really big days and run out of time to focus on themselves.
“They go to work, do a 12-hour day, drive home, spend some time with the kids and the partner and forget to take some time to look after themselves.”
Mr Tyler said there was also some stigma attached to reaching out for help in what was traditionally a male-dominated industry in which toughness was seen as a virtue.
“I worked in construction for seven or eight years,” he said.
“It’s still an industry where you’re expected to ‘put your big-boy pants on’. That’s changing, and Mates In Construction are doing a great job of breaking that down but there’s still a long way to go.”
Mates In Construction is a nationwide, industry-backed suicide-prevention and support program that has been working in the field for the past 12 years. Mr Tyler, who works closely with the organisation, said, tragically, suicide numbers were still high in the building industry.
“That’s because of a range of factors, but it is a male-dominated industry, and suicide is a male-dominated is-sue in terms of outcomes,” he said.
“It’s a bit of a forgotten area in construction when we talk about suicide and mental health with lots of emphasis on emergency services and safety – and so there should be – but that other area can be forgotten.”
However, there was, Mr Tyler said, hope on the horizon, with changing attitudes and new approaches meaning more men were getting the help they needed.
“I do think it is getting better,” he said. “I come from a very blokey football background, and I find that guys are definitely getting better at telling each other what’s going on but there are still pockets of people dismissive of mental health and don’t think it exists. What’s really exciting for me is that there are groups out there looking at this.” And Mr Tyler said he believed a gendered approach to mental health – where people acknowledged that the sexes often suffered differently and responded to different styles of help – definitely worked.
“That’s not to be dismissive of female mental health – which is every bit as important – but I think it’s good to see that people are saying, ‘hang on, maybe we need to take a more gendered approach to this’,” he said.
“There are some really good groups starting up in SA.
“They’re working on just stripping things down and looking at how they can make things more appealing for men and making it super easy to access. And if some women look at this approach and think that works better for them then that’s fantastic.”
Mr Tyler said it was important that men found the treatment that worked for them.
“There’s 100 psychologists out there that can work for you and you need to find that one,” he said.
Footballer shines a light on his journey out of the darkness
One year ago, Zane Kirkwood was riding a bike across the Nullarbor Plain and he wasn’t sure he could go on.
It was on the morning of day eight and the Sturt legend and dual Magarey Medal winner was having a panic attack, an outward symptom of the anxiety issues that were so badly affecting his life.
The very obstacles he was trying to raise awareness of by travelling by bike, skateboard and foot from Perth to Adelaide.
“I had the blinkers on,” Kirkwood said.
“I couldn’t really see further than a couple of metres in front of the bike. I don’t remember that morning very well, I wasn’t in a good spot.
“At the 50km mark, I broke down to my dad and my brother in the car and they pulled over . we had a rest and a talk. I think I managed to do another 100km after that.
“That just proves that there are small steps you can put in place to keep going.”
That’s something of a mantra for the dual-premiership captain who struggled for years with anxiety that at times was so bad that he couldn’t leave his own house.
“You just have to keep on going and find the thing that works for you,” Kirkwood said.
“I saw other people writing in journals or doing meditation and it was helping their anxiety but it didn’t work for me. That knocked me around a bit. I thought, ‘ah, I’m buggered here’.
“But then I found that going for a walk every morning with some music or with my dog really helped me clear my head. And what worked changed from day to day.
“You have to keep trying different things and be persistent. It’s a tough battle.”
Kirkwood said since completing his epic journey, he had been asked to speak for a number of sporting clubs and business groups about his own struggles with mental-health issues and his advice for others who might be suffering in silence.
“I just speak about my own journey and where I hope to get to,” he said.
“The follow up conversations you have after doing something like this is what it’s all about. I certainly don’t know all the answers, and everyone has their own individual issues, but one thing I always say to people is don’t be afraid to try new things.
“I’ve had Sturt fans and footy fans in general come up and thank me, which is very humbling, and tell me that they’re comfortable talking to their families now or going to talk to a doctor.
That’s the whole reason I did it. If they feel comfortable to put their hand up then that’s great.”
As for the gruelling ride? Kirkwood said he was actually planning another one. “This time I think we’ll go from Darwin to Adelaide, because that’s all downhill,” he said with a laugh.
My mission to break down stigma – and save lives
When Cate Howell worked as a doctor in the Australian Defence Force, she was often astounded by how long some of her male patients had suffered with mental illness.
Many men were coming in with untreated conditions stretching back five years. Some went back 20 years and a few had suffered in silence for as long as 30 years.
For Dr Howell, it was symbolic of the unique issues facing men when it comes to getting treatment for mental-health issues. Men, she says, are raised to be stoic, to believe that seeking help from family, friends and medical professionals is a sign of weakness.
And these beliefs are killing them, with men about three times more likely to take their own life than women.
It’s why Dr Howell and her son, Melbourne-based musician and mental-health advocate Alex Barnard, have written a book to help men realise that it’s OK to not be OK and access the care they need.
Dr Howell hopes The Changing Man: A Mental Health Guide will make men more willing to at least start conversations.
Her interest in mental health started at a young age. “As a child, I suffered from anxiety and I didn’t know what it was,” she says.
“I thought it was just something I had to deal with. I think I used the anxiety in some ways to push myself and help me perform academically. But I’ve always found mental health fascinating, and I developed a strong passion around it. Then, as a GP, I found that a lot of our work relates to mental health in some form.”
Dr Howell says despite all the efforts to break down the stigma around men’s mental-health issues – and she admits that we have come a long way in recent years and that many more men are now seeking help – many still struggle with the concept of talking to their doctor about things such as depression and anxiety.
“There is still more stigma around mental health than physical health, and I think that’s because of how we raise males in society,” she says. “We raise them to be brave and strong and not cry and not express emotions too much. Still today we’re doing that. So to say to someone ‘I’m having a hard time emotionally’, that’s perceived as a weakness and showing vulnerability and that’s very confronting.”
In writing The Changing Man, which aims to provide a collection of tools that can be used for dealing with the gamut of issues, from addiction to overcoming depression, Dr Howell hopes she can help at least some men from becoming statistics.
“The thing that really drove me to write a book about men’s mental health were the statistics around suicide,” she says. “It really is a crisis.
“Men are three times more likely than women, and the statistics are in the thousands every year. I’ve been in practice for more than 30 years, and people are talking about it more and more men are seeking help but I think we still have a ways to go.”
Her co-author and son, Mr Barnard, said: “General awareness around men’s mental health … is improving, which is fantastic, but a ‘get on with it’ attitude is still quite prominent among men in certain social and vocational circles.”