An England football legend backed by sports stars and supported by Causeway Technologies is spearheading a new charity encouraging construction workers to talk about mental health.
Former England and Everton hero Trevor Steven’s Mindflow initiative has been endorsed by football stars including Gary Lineker, Robbie Fowler, Stuart Pearce, Viv Anderson, Peter Reid and Ally McCoist.
It was launched at the National Football Museum in Manchester on 20 March and attended by Mindflow Ambassadors: Manchester City’s David White, Paul Dickov and Paul Lake, Tottenham Hotspur’s Paul Stewart, and Sheffield United’s Curtis Woodhouse.
Mindflow’s launch follows a nationwide survey carried out by Causeway Technologies to establish the extent of the ‘silent epidemic’ of mental health plaguing UK construction sites.
Life-changing and life-saving support
Between May 2022 and September 2023, Trevor – Causeway’s Mental Health Ambassador at the time – had toured construction sites across the UK, gathering responses about mental health from more than 1,400 construction workers. The results were truly shocking: Over half admitted to struggling with their mental health.
But what to do next was the question.
Two years earlier, in 2020, Causeway had pledged its commitment to EitC (Everton in the Community) with the launch of a new long-term strategic partnership to provide life-changing and life-saving support to thousands of individuals across Merseyside.
Working with EitC had highlighted how using club loyalty and the power of the badge could be effective in tackling social issues such as mental health.
“Trevor’s survey followed and our Mindflow journey was a natural progression,” said Causeway’s Executive Chairman, and Mindflow's Chair of Trustees, Phil Brown. “It uses the universal language of sport to get workers to open up about issues of mental health.”
‘Talk football, talk mental health’
The onsite research conducted by Trevor found that most workers in the industry (67%) are football fans, and the Mindflow charity aims to create a culture of proactive support and early intervention by joining the dots between construction, mental health and football.
Through its ‘Talk Football, Talk Mental Health’ programme, current and ex-football players will visit construction sites to deliver mental health awareness sessions, encourage conversation, and recruit volunteers from each session to train as mental health first aiders.
The Ambassadors have all publicly shared their challenges around mental health and have firsthand experience to support the construction industry.
Trevor said: “Football, and sport in general, has made great strides in destigmatising issues around mental health whereas in construction, the statistics around suicide rates tell an opposing story.
“Getting people talking is widely cited as being key to tackling poor mental health. Football offers a potential route in; it is a sport that brings people together and starts conversations. We hope that through football, Mindflow can help site workers to speak more freely about their mental health.”
Through its Charter, Mindflow will introduce a consistent, and measurable, standard for mental health provisions onsite, set out by the local authority on publicly funded projects. As it stands, the level of mental health support for workers is left up to the contractor, whereas the Charter will mean contractors have to meet set standards to secure the work.
Causeway’s CEO Paul Devlin added: “We are committed to improving mental health practices and that is why we are campaigning for companies across our industry to do the same.
“We are asking businesses to back a campaign for mental health provision to be part of the Health & Safety and Social Value procurement conditions for future construction contracts.”
Visit the Mindflow website and subscribe now to be part of the journey. Exciting announcements are on the way.
