Mental wellbeing in heavy industry

Planning and implementing a health and mental wellbeing programme at Komatsu Mining Corp

Summary:

Occupational health nurse Georgina Wynne explains how she achieved organisational buy-in to implement a new in-house mental health and wellbeing strategy at the mining equipment manufacturers Komatsu. Significantly, this was achieved by an OH service of just one OH professional.

Mental health continues to be a major issue in the workplace, and poor mental wellbeing can have a significant impact on an individual’s health, attendance, performance and engagement. The issue affects all sectors. Between 2015/16 and 2017/18, for example, annually around 81,000 manufacturing workers in Britain were suffering from an illness they believe was caused, or made worse by work activities. Of these cases, 28% were identified as stress, depression or anxiety¹…

Georgina Wynne is UK occupational health and wellbeing advisor at Komatsu Mining Corp UK.

Author: Wynne G

Tags health and safety health work and wellbeing mental health

Occupational Health at Work August/September 2019 (vol. 16/2) pp32-35

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