Basically Safety: Episode 4 - Mental Health and Safety

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What's this podcast episode about?

Key takeaways:

Ask the question are you ok? Don't be afraid to ask again if they wave you off

Walk and talk - it gets people more comfortable and start with neutral topics

Listen to absorb, rather than feel the need to respond

In conjunction with Mental Health Awareness Week, Gulliver and Hannah found it a perfect opportunity to have a chat about Mental health on farms.

Mental Health in Agriculture

95% of UK Farmers under 40, rank poor mental health as one of the biggest hidden problems facing farmers. It's a pretty damning statistic.

Mental Health includes your emotional, and psychological well-being. It affects how we feel, think and act. All play a part in your daily life and work.

One of the biggest things Hannah wanted to talk about in this episode was how people think of Mental Health and Health and Safety as two separate groups.

Whereas in Hannah's view, they intersect and overlap so they are connected. Mental health affects your actions, such as your concentration, and has a big part to play in the decisions you make in your work environment.

How do you make sure you and your employee's mental health is in the right working?

Have open conversations surrounding mental health and equip workers with the knowledge and signs of mental health. The best place to start is from the point of listening. You don't feel like you need to provide solutions. Often listening is just as valuable as anything in those instances.

If someone comes to you with a problem, ask them two questions. Would you like solutions or are you asking because you'd like someone to listen?

Sometimes you only need the listening part and you'll get to the solution part in your own time.

What type of things should supervisors look out for?

Know how mental health can impact safety. Another risk factor is fatigue from demands on the job and seasonal pressures. This can reduce your alertness and increase risk of accidents. Stress too can distract you and cause you to lose concentration.

The job you've done countless times may not be stressful for you, but for someone new, it might be alarming for them.

Another thing to look out for is the physical signs. These can look like a lack of care in presentation, looking run down, irritable, loss of their sense of humour and making mistakes they typically don't. These are all indicators to start that conversation.

The physical side of health and safety has laws, acts and guidance but this hidden mental health has never been legislated to date. Leaving a lack of information and nothing in the legislation that says you have to do something.

But when it comes to factors that can increase the chances of accidents happening, it's one of the things you need to consider.

Stress in the workplace

Everyone deals with different amounts of differently. But stress is not always a bad thing either.

It's quite a good thing in small quantities. A slightly stressful situation in small amounts every now and again, increases productivity. It's when you cross that threshold in prolonged periods is when it becomes problematic.

Supervisors can use Risk Assessments and Checklists to check the stress and risk levels of different jobs. It looks through the demands of the job, the controls and the support people have. It allows you to rank the stress for the whole workplace and for particular individuals as well. It's a great place to start and to have documentation.

If you do it immediately every six to twelve months you can see if it's changing and whether you need a contractor to help take the load off your team.

Informative Links