Site foremen receive mental health awareness training

TJ Waste’s Materials Recovery Facilities (MRF) site foremen have received basic mental health awareness training to equip them in being able to identify potential issues with staff and partners in the industry.

The four site supervisors attended a 90-minute training session that TJ hosted recently to address the importance of talking about mental health in the construction industry – an industry closely linked to our own and one we work very closely with. The course provided a better understanding about mental health with a focus on how to look after yourself and your colleagues.

Our site foremen – Steve Thompson from Dibles Wharf, Anthony Towle from Tipner, Jack Phillbrow from Quatremaine and Martin Wright from Yapton all attended the session. 

The training, entitled “Let’s talk – Building the Conversation”, was delivered by Solent Mind, the largest mental health charity in Hampshire. The session was open to those in the local construction, trade and related industries, and held at Village Hotel Portsmouth.

The session addressed a number of topics including:

• Why it’s important to open up the conversation around mental health
• Common mental health issues
• How you can help yourself and improve your own mental resilience
• How you can support others

Solent Mind aims to ensure that anyone with a mental health problem has somewhere to turn for advice and support. Their mental health experts can help anyone feeling low, worried or anxious and are there to listen. In 2022-23 they supported over 44,500 people in Hampshire.

Our four MRFs are dotted along the south coast at Southampton, Tipner – Portsmouth, Quartremaine Road – Portsmouth, and Yapton. Each site has varying numbers of operatives and it is hoped that with this training now undertaken, the staff at each site will feel comfortable approaching their site foreman with any mental health issues they are experiencing.

TJ’s Head of Compliance Jack Macfarlane is a fully trained Mental Health First Aider. He said: “It’s great that we were able to host this training session for the local construction trade and related industries, and also that our foremen were able to take part in order to provide support to our own staff where needed. Helping to improve people’s mental health is vital to maintaining happy workers, families, communities, and so on.”

Discover other ways in which we support our staff and explore the services we offer…