- Title
- Feasibility and acceptability of strategies to address mental health and mental ill-health in the Australian coal mining industry
- Creator
- Tynan, Ross J.; James, Carole; Considine, Robyn; Skehan, Jaelea; Gullestrup, Jorgen; Lewin, Terry J.; Wiggers, John; Kelly, Brian J.
- Relation
- International Journal of Mental Health Systems Vol. 12
- Publisher Link
- http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s13033-018-0245-8
- Publisher
- Biomed Central
- Resource Type
- journal article
- Date
- 2018
- Description
- Background: To evaluate the feasibility, acceptability and effectiveness of implementing a peer-based, multi-component mental health program in the Australian coal mining industry. Methods: The multicomponent program included MATES in mining (a peer-based mental health and suicide prevention program) and supervisor training. Eight Australian coal mines participated in the research, with four mines receiving the mental health program. Primary outcome variables including mental health stigma, help-seeking behaviour and perception of the workplace commitment to mental health were measured prior to program implementation, and then again 10 months following using a paper based survey. Process evaluation of the mental health program was measured using a pre-test/post-test survey. Results: MATES in mining 1275 miners participated in the MATES general awareness and connector training. Participants were more confident that they could identify a workmate experiencing mental ill-health; help a workmate, family member or themselves identify where to get support and were more willing to start a conversation with a workmate about their mental health. Supervisor training 117 supervisors completed the supervisor training and were subsequently more confident that they could: identify someone experiencing mental ill-health in the workplace; identify and recommend support services to a person experiencing mental ill-health; and have an effective conversation about performance issues that may be due to mental ill-health. Conclusions: Our findings show evidence to support the use of peer-based mental health programs in the mining industry, and for male-dominated industry more broadly.
- Subject
- workplace health; mental health; mining; coal; peer support
- Identifier
- http://hdl.handle.net/1959.13/1401999
- Identifier
- uon:34993
- Identifier
- ISSN:1752-4458
- Rights
- © The Author(s) 2018. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.
- Language
- eng
- Full Text
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