‘Support’: Young tradie calls out grim industry norm

A young tradie has revealed the industry norm that needs to change immediately and the sad thing she keeps seeing on the job.

Bardie Somerville loves the tradie industry, but she believes a mental health crisis is happening and it can’t be ignored.

Ms Somerville, 26, is a carpenter by trade and the co-founder of The Shift, an organisation that aims to give tradies “the tools for life”.

She came up with the idea after battling her own mental health issues as a young tradie and realised there wasn’t much support available.

“I struggled with being the only woman and I really struggled with my mental health and then got into drinking,” she told news.com.au.

“I was drinking with other tradies at the pub, and I didn’t have any other women around me to look up to, and I wanted to fit in, and I wanted to be a typical tradie, and it seemed like a lot of fun.”

Bardie Somerville loves the tradie industry. Picture: Instagram/bards.builds

She wants to make a positive change in the industry. Picture: Instagram/bards.builds

Ms Somerville said that mental health issues are rife in the tradie industry but workers struggle to address them.

“I believe there are quite a few habits that come with the industry and for some people it can be an easy path to go down and fall into,” she said.

The 26-year-old listed drinking, gambling and drugs as the main culprits, but she argued that tradies don’t want to succumb to addictions, there just isn’t enough help available.

“I think people in the industry want help, and people want a better life, but they don’t come from somewhere where they’ve seen how to fix it,” she said.

“It isn’t that people don’t want to change. They don’t know how to.”

Ms Somerville said that when she started looking for help to address her issues, she realised a gap in her industry.

“There just wasn’t that support for tradies,” she said.

She said there’s not enough support for tradies. Picture: Instagram/bards.builds

The 26-year-old developed her program, The Shift, to give tradies the support she was once desperately looking for.

It has a pretty simple formula.

The main goal of the program is to help tradies learn how to check in with themselves and each other, have conversations, develop support networks and regulate their nervous systems through breathing techniques.

“The program has been incredible. I’ve had so many young and old women and men come through the program and have such great results,” she said.

“Some of them have moved on, gone into therapy, and watched their whole lives change just from becoming aware of their habits.”

Ms Somerville said that tradies need to understand their mental wellbeing is just as important as their safety on-site.

“On site every day, there’s so many things to keep ourselves safe. You sign all different documents and wear your safety gear,” she pointed out.

But then, when it comes to mental health, there’s far less awareness around it and certainly not everyday procedures being actioned.

She believes there is a culture in the industry that contributes to lax attitudes around mental health. Picture: Instagram/bards.builds

She wants tradies to put their mental health first. Picture: Instagram/bards.builds

Ms Somerville said that there’s such a “she’ll be right” culture in the tradie world that workers don’t tend to share their feelings, and by the time she speaks with them, they’re at capacity.

“By the time people have people come through, things have actually been built up for so long,” she said.

“It is rare that you’ll have someone struggling that has one thing going on. Someone has stayed silent for so long that they are at a place where they are going to erupt.”

The 26-year-old said that she thinks men, in general, can really struggle with having open conversations when they don’t feel right.

“I think men, in general, think they have to get through it on their own. It can be difficult to ask for that help. There is that mentality of just keep going,” she said.

Ms Somerville’s focus now is simply to “give the tradies the tools they need to change and need to be better,” she said.

Ms Somerville also recommended TIACS, a professional mental health counselling service for tradies, truckies, farmers and blue-collar workers, that you contact on 0488 846 988.

Originally published as ‘Support’: Young tradie calls out grim industry norm