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

This research aims to better understand the levels of exposure to different psychosocial hazards within the NT building industry, which will inform the future development of targeted intervention strategies. This is a necessary step towards effectively addressing the concerning levels of distress and suicide within the NT, which is the highest of any jurisdiction in Australia [8]. Exposure to work-related psychosocial hazards is a contributing factor to suicide, acknowledged by the NT Government, which has specific plans and strategies for prevention to stem these unnecessary deaths [9]. The NT has several all-of-government approaches to suicide prevention, including dedicated funded services, such as MATES in Construction, to improve workplace mental health [10]. Localised responses from NT leaders and experts in suicide prevention and mental health also identify the role that workplaces have in the wellbeing of workers and the protective factors attached to work that can mitigate mental ill-health and suicide [11]. Critical to suicide prevention and workplace mental health initiatives in the NT is the use of local knowledge and experience in the design and formation of responses [12]. NT-specific trends in workplace mental health stressors largely relate to industry-specific workforces in the fields of health, social services, and government, where most NT residents are employed [13]. The building and construction workforce, however, does not have the same level of understanding of the collective industry’s work environment and associated mental health hazards. Where there is evidence, it is of a secondary nature; for example, focusing on the impacts of management styles with a view to increase productivity in local NT construction projects [14]. This evidence is strengthened by project-specific and trade-specific knowledge in managing the rostering in larger NT projects [15]. The substantial economic and human costs, including mental ill-health, of suicide in the building and construction industry from the perspective of cost and wellbeing is evidenced by Doran, Ling, and Milner [16]. Their study indicates a significant cost, separate from the collective community’s grief, of an incident of self-harm in the building and construction industry [16]. Doran, Ling, Milner, and Kinchin suggest that each fatality from self-harm and suicide results in a cost of AUD $2.72 million to the Northern Territory, with the government covering 97% of that cost [17]. The rates of suicide for male NT construction workers, from 2001–2019, have remained higher compared to suicide rates for males outside the building and construction industry [18]. Whilst the data available to make this analysis are modest and have multiple variables, they do imply an increase in the rates of suicide for construction workers in the NT over this period [18]. Although evidence demonstrates that high rates of suicide in the NT building and construction industry is a concern, the relationships between suicide and psychosocial hazards require further exploration.