Effectiveness of the Australian MATES in Construction Suicide Prevention Program: a systematic review

Abstract

Suicide is a major public health issue globally. The World Health Organization has called for nations to create comprehensive national suicide prevention strategies including multisectoral collaboration, awareness raising, advocacy and capacity building. The workplace provides opportunity and structure for suicide prevention programs. However, many of these programs are poorly documented and evaluated. The MATES in Construction (MATES) program is a multimodal workplace-based suicide prevention program designed for and by the construction industry. This systematic review examined the available evidence for the effectiveness of the MATES program and is reported according to PRISMA guidelines. A literature search resulted in the inclusion of 12 peer-reviewed articles published between January 2010 and February 2023 containing primary data of evaluations of MATES. There was evidence of the effectiveness of the MATES program in improving mental health and suicide prevention literacy, helping intentions and reducing stigma. The results highlighted the importance of worker-to-worker peer approaches with workers consistently stating that supervisors were the least trusted resources for mental health and suicide concerns. Favourable results were found in relation to reduced suicide risk in the construction industry. The evidence base for MATES is limited in terms of causal inference with very few controlled evaluations and no experimental studies having been conducted to date. Improved understanding of how the program motivates volunteers, their experiences and research on the longer-term impacts of the program on the industry is required.

Psychosocial Hazards in the Northern Territory Building and Construction Industry: A Profile of Job Demands and Job Resources in a Jurisdiction and Industry with High Rates of Suicide

“…Peer support has been evidenced to be critical to psychosocial safety in the construction work environment, and this sample demonstrated minimal concern with this item compared to previous COVID-19 data [ 25 , 36 ]. This sample in the NT was garnered from sites that had a strong peer support network and a training program attached to suicide prevention and mental health awareness, including accreditation with MATES in Construction [ 25 ]. Further exploration of work environments where these factors are not present could demonstrate how significant peer support is to worker wellbeing and give broader clarity to peer support in the Northern Territory building and construction industry.…”

“…Similarly, role ambiguity and poor relationships are strong features of stress in the construction work environment [ 24 ]. Peer support and the perception of an understanding and trustworthy work environment is an additional known protective factor for workplace mental health [ 25 ]. This point is further evidenced in the experiences of workers themselves; having trusted and reliable peers and established relationships is known to strengthen construction workers’ sense of support and community when facing mental health adversity or distress [ 25 ].…”

“…Peer support and the perception of an understanding and trustworthy work environment is an additional known protective factor for workplace mental health [ 25 ]. This point is further evidenced in the experiences of workers themselves; having trusted and reliable peers and established relationships is known to strengthen construction workers’ sense of support and community when facing mental health adversity or distress [ 25 ]. Further to this sense of support, there are fewer negative perceptions of reprimand, blame, or vulnerability in needing support or assistance from trusted peers when disclosing workplace mental health challenges [ 26 ].…”

Workplace Interventions Targeting Mental Health Literacy, Stigma, Help-Seeking, and Help-Offering in Male-Dominated Industries: A Systematic Review

“…While some studies reported a significant increase in confidence around help-offering, this did not translate to any increased willingness to offer help or incidences of help-offering behavior. This may be explained by the lack of clear ''help-offering'' construct definitions despite its use in the wider literature (Gullestrup et al, 2023), outcome measures with poor psychometric properties, and the short-term nature of the interventions. While significant changes were observed post-intervention in the included studies, the extent to which these findings can be attributed to intervention effects is limited.…”

Prevalence and associated factors of suicidal ideation, non-suicidal self-injury and suicide attempt among male construction industry workers in Ireland

“…Beyond this, a number of industry-speci c risk factors have been reported such as low job control, high work demands, job insecurity, the transient nature of work and long work hours (12)(13)(14). Other studies that have reported factors associated with CIW suicide include young age, low education, nancial, legal and relationship issues, low socioeconomic status, alcohol misuse, migration, and depression (14)(15)(16).This emerging body of evidence has prompted the development and implementation of early intervention programmes within the construction industry which have shown promise in reducing sigma, improving suicide prevention literacy and improving intention to seek help and offer help to colleagues (17,18). However, researchers are often limited in their ability to evaluate the direct and indirect effects of such early intervention programmes on suicide due to the relatively low base-rate behaviour and the subsequent requirement to have prohibitively large sample sizes (19), and because most variables of interest cannot be measured postmortem (8).…”