Taking a more novel approach to mental health in mining

Anton Guinea, The Guinea Group of Companies

Although the mining industry has made significant progress in the last decade or more in relation to caring for the humans on mine sites, there is still a way to go. And by ‘caring’, I mean it is not just about sending miners home in one piece, it is about building psychologically safe workplaces, where miners feel like their leaders listen, connect, and care.

But what happens when leaders (or mining organisations in general) don’t have the ability to listen, connect and care? The emotional state of miners suffers. And as much as it is acknowledged that it is not just a lack of psychologically safe leadership that impacts the mental health of our miners, that is the place to start.

Leadership – caring for teams, not just tonnes

Leadership has changed so much since I was a young tradesperson working on a remote iron ore mine site in outback WA. In May 1994 (yes, I can still remember my first day on a mine site), the senior supervisor was so disappointed that I had been hired by the company. Yes, I was straight out of my apprenticeship, and yes, he was right when he shared with me how he really felt.

He said, “I don’t know how you even got a job here. You’ll take two years to come up to speed on our gear, and we’ll have to carry you until then. What was HR thinking?” It was said in more colourful language, but you get the picture. Not a very supportive or caring approach.

But that is how it was back then. Just say it how it is, right? And that was a good approach in the 90s, where it was a case of toughening up. Good leaders know that this is not a great way to motivate miners, and that poor leadership can exacerbate the mental health challenges that team members suffer through.

With the state of mental health in mining only lately being recognised as an issue, leaders are now required to lean into caring for the teams, not just the tonnes. Including the emotional and mental fitness of their miners. For some mining leaders, these skills don’t come easily and are hard to learn.

But they can be learned.

Workplace mental health – what does it take?

What we know is that the current interventions of mental health first aid training, Employee Assistance Programs, and other types of mental health support are working … to a degree.

Asare-Doku, Rich, Kelly, and James (2020) reported on the state of mental health in mining and noted that such “interventions might be accepted in other occupations and might be different in mining because of the unique characteristics such as a male-dominated workforce, hence reluctance in seeking help for psychological problems due to toxic masculine ideals, age of employees, location, stigma and limited access to resources.” What Asare-Doku et al. recommend is a novel approach to the leadership of mental health initiatives in mining from both organisational and individual levels.

Organisationally, any initiative needs to be driven by the senior leadership team. Like all cultural or change initiatives, the more important it is to senior leaders, the more important it will become for leaders at all levels of the organisation. With that being the case, and given that a novel approach is required, what can be done differently at an organisational level?

The one thing that stops people engaging

The novel approach needs to address the one thing that stops people from engaging in the mental health process. And that is the stigma around mental health in mining. With over 2 in 5 (43.7%) Australians aged 16–85 experiencing a mental disorder during their lifetime, according to the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, mental health should not be stigmatised. As a society, and within the mining industry, are we not at a point where mental health should be normalised, not stigmatised?

Instead of training miners in mental health first aid (or as well as), why don’t mining organisations train the whole business in how to be ‘Mental Health Champions’? Now that would be novel. Let’s forget about being the shoulder of support for our colleagues and focus on how to make mental health okay to talk about.

In the right way, with the right language. And without making people feel like they are outcasts or condemned if they are struggling with personal or professional issues.

Becoming mental health champions

At an individual level, imagine for a moment (and this will stretch most people reading this) if pre-starts contained some mindfulness or meditation or breathing exercises to help people get ready for the day. Now that would be novel.

Imagine putting team members through a training program that included personal development skills like empathy, connection, and emotional intelligence. So that everyone in the business was trained to be a good human, not just a good miner. And you could do that as part of the mental health champion training (I know this, because we have run that program in Gladstone recently for local industry representatives).

Helping miners become mental health champions, not just mental health first aiders, is the missing piece in mining. It is the novel component that Asare-Doku et al. are alluding to. It is different. It is powerful. It is empowering.

Empowering miners and their leaders to remove any stigma about mental health is the solution to making mining a more psychologically safe industry. And to reducing the impact of mental health conditions on our miners.

I just wonder which organisations will be early adopters, and which ones will wait and watch.

In summary, two in every four people you see on the street will suffer through a mental health condition throughout their lives (and this metric is potentially higher in the mining industry).

Traditional approaches are somewhat successful in creating an emotionally safe working environment, but a novel concept is required. And that novel concept is a de-stigmatisation of mental health at an organisational and individual level.