Chris Lockwood is the former National CEO of the MATES organisation, a suicide-prevention charity incorporating MATES in Construction and equivalent efforts in mining and energy, and more recently, manufacturing.
MATES in Construction is dedicated to reducing the suicide rate within the construction industry across Australia and New Zealand. Since taking the role in 2017, Chris has had a relentless focus on workplace mental health, community engagement, and creating safe, supportive environments for workers in the construction industry — a sector notorious for its demanding conditions and high-pressure work environments. The resulting success of the MATES program has been recognised globally by the World Health Organization as an exemplar of grass-roots intervention in suicide prevention, and is presented as an example in the WHO suicide prevention program ‘LIVE LIFE’.1
Chris didn’t start out his career in this field, however. He spent most of his career in business roles, but moving into a management role at superannuation fund Cbus changed his perspective.
“In my role at Cbus I managed the health programs designed to reduce the suicides rate across the construction industry, which gave me an appreciation of the importance of the value of that work to drive change across the sector,” Chris said. “Then, when an opportunity came up to join MATES in Construction, I jumped at it, because it really aligned with my values and allowed me to use my experience to deliver positive outcomes in the workplace.
“What was pivotal for me in taking the role was my work in the industry and knowing the numbers of those who had died by suicide, as well as the real impacts that those deaths have had on colleagues, on families and on the broader community that they live in.”
An industry in need
Suicide is a significantly larger problem in the construction industry, compared with other workplace health and safety issues.
“Sadly, workers are eight times more likely to die by suicide than from a workplace accident,” Chris said. “The industry has greatly improved physical health and safety, but now we need to make the same shift in relation to looking after the mental health and wellbeing of everyone working in the industry so that we can actually step forward and help people when they are struggling.
“If we see that someone is in that challenging place, then if someone steps forward to offer them help, we know that there’s a real opportunity to actually save a life.”
The construction industry presents a number of workplace challenges that lead to the higher incidence of suicide, including long working hours, which can remove people from their normal social connections, both at home and from their friends and broader community.
“Long working hours also mean pressures can be placed on relationships at home that can sadly lead to relationship breakdown,” Chris added. “There can also be financial pressures between jobs, where you don’t always have that regular ongoing fortnightly pay packet — going from job to job, site to site and project to project. Those sorts of pressures can add on top of each other and spiral, and if drug or alcohol use steps in too, you can get a compounding effect.”
Grassroots support in the workplace
The MATES program works to educate everyone in the workplace to make it something that everyone needs to step forward and do something about.
“The backbone of it is ‘mates looking after mates’, and to recognise that we don’t have to be the end support service for their specific needs, but we can be the starting point to connect someone to help,” Chris said. “We get people to volunteer to become someone we call a ‘Connector’. The Connector does a training course to give them the confidence to have a meaningful conversation with someone, and to keep them safe while connecting them to the support they need.
“Usually around one in 10 people in the workplace will step forward to be a Connector, and they will wear a green sticker or badge to show who they are — so even if you don’t have a personal relationship with the Connector, if you see a mate struggling you can facilitate the person having a chat with one.
“It provides a pathway to help without having to go through any of the formal management systems,” Chris added. “By making it a peer-based system, it is more likely that there will be honest conversations, where they don’t have to worry that something they reveal may be held against them in the workplace, whether that be real or perceived.”
A program owned by the industry
The MATES program has been established in each of the supported industries, and is owned by those industries: the unions and the employers working together.
“[This is] a fundamental part of how the program is being able to move forward successfully, because it engenders trust between workers, management and the back offices onsite,” Chris said. “Mental health and suicide prevention is one area where unions and management are in wholehearted agreement, which is why we have been able to drive forward the program so successfully.”
Coming full circle
Chris worked to drive forward the strategic direction for the organisation and build a sustainable footing so it can grow the footprint of its suicide prevention programs across the industries in which it works.
“I was lucky enough to be supported by a great team across Australia and New Zealand — people working on the ground, at sites in those industries as well as the back-office team all working to drive the program forward,” he said.
On a personal note, Chris reflects that his life seems to have come full circle.
“I did happen to have studied a degree in psychology in my early years, and it’s interesting that it has come around to this point where I am working in this particular space,” he said.
“You never know where you are going to end up, but it makes absolute sense that I am where I am, and it gave me pride and joy every day to be able to work with passionate people and volunteers to be able to drive the MATES program forward across all our industries.”
If you or someone you know is doing it tough, the MATES Helpline is available 24/7 on 1300 642 111.
1. World Health Organization 2021, LIVE LIFE: An implementation guide for suicide prevention in countries, https://www.who.int/publications/i/item/9789240026629.
