In the new year many of us feel the post-holiday or winter blues, so January is an apt time to talk about mental wellbeing.

Did you know, every year over 2.4 million man-days are lost through injury or illness in the construction industry? Or that 40% of employees in the construction and engineering sector took time off work due to poor mental health in 2019? On the 18th of January, join this webinar on mental health in the construction industry with guests from the Lighthouse Club and Kent and Medway Healthy Workplaces. This one-hour session will be hosted by the Executive Director of I-Construct Anita Thornberry.

During the session Bill Hill from the Lighthouse Club will be talking about the issues around mental health in the construction industry. He will highlight how the charity hopes to make construction a safer place to work, and how your business can get involved. Kathryn Swinney from Kent and Medway Healthy Workplaces will then be giving us her top tips about creating a good mental wellbeing culture in your workspace. Bring your questions along to ask them at the end.

Meet your speakers

Kathryn Swinney, Workplace Health Coordinator. Kent and Medway Healthy Workplaces Programme

Kathryn runs the Kent and Medway Healthy Workplaces Programme, a free wellbeing support programme and Workplace Wellbeing Award system for businesses operating in Kent or Medway. Kathryn is a Mental Health First Aider as well as Connect 5 Mental Health Awareness Trainer and regularly delivers mental health training to dozens of businesses each year.

Kathryn brings a range of workplace wellbeing experience from both the USA and United Kingdom, having supported both large and SMEs assess their workplace wellbeing needs and develop a bespoke workplace wellbeing strategy. Most recently, Kathryn enjoys supporting a portfolio of over two-dozen businesses in East Kent with a range of mental health training, designing wellbeing content, and supporting the development of workplace health champions across multiple organisations.

Bill Hill, Chief Executive, Lighthouse Construction Industry charity

Bill gained over 20 years’ experience holding senior positions in blue chip giants Hewlett-Packard and Sage PLC. He has a passion for customer service and has a wealth of experience across the major business disciplines of marketing, sales, operations and finance. Bill is also a trained accountant and a Mental Health First Aid instructor.

He joined the Lighthouse Construction Industry Charity in 2013 and plays a major role in growing the profile and significance of its charitable work within the construction community. The charity operates a 24/7 Industry Helpline, it has a construction focused Health and wellbeing APP and plays a central role in ‘Building Mental Health’, the construction industry’s key mental health awareness and support programme.

“There is a big difference between doing things right and doing right things. Developing a strategy to support positive mental health in our industry is the right thing to do! If you look after your people…your people will look after your business.”

Attendance

This event is open to all I-Construct members.

The I-Construct Network helps UK-based SMEs access opportunities in the construction market and develop new products and services within their businesses. If you’re not a member but are UK-based and interested in joining, please get in touch.

Build your business with the I-Construct network

Construction makes a huge contribution to our economy, our quality of life, and our environment. With major infrastructure and housing development planned and the need to tackle climate change, there has never been a more important time to innovate. We believe small businesses play a vital role in this process. And we can do more together. So, we created I-Construct, a member network with a dedicated innovation hub building for construction innovation.

Our mission is to unite like-minded businesses and client organisations in an active, forward-thinking community. We want to give that community the connections, mentorship, and financial support it needs to meet sector challenges and grow sustainably. Sharing business opportunities and lowering barriers to innovation. Attracting new talent and thinking into our industry.

Would you like to join us?