R U OK? in Trucks & Sheds

Today (Tuesday, May 17) marks the very first ‘R U OK? in Trucks & Sheds’ day – a day when everyone in the transport and logistics sector is encouraged to ask a fellow colleague how they’re doing.

A collaboration between R U OK?, a leading not-for-profit national suicide prevention initiative, and Healthy Heads in Trucks & Sheds, a mental health awareness organisation that focuses purely on the transport and logistics industry, the day shines a light on the Australian freight sector and the unique challenges and pressures with which many of its workers must contend.

R U OK? in Trucks & Sheds is specific to this industry, but adopts the same principals that underpin the broader R U OK? day that this year will take place on Thursday, September 8.

Unique challenges

Speaking at the Australian Trucking Association’s Trucking Australia 22 conference on the Gold Coast recently, Naomi Frauenfelder, CEO of Healthy Heads in Trucks & Sheds, highlighted some of the many factors that impact the industry.

“We’ve got some pretty severe risk factors in our sector … bearing in mind the stat that postal, road transport and warehousing is ranked 19th out of 19 sectors for being mentally healthy, so literally the worst,” she said.

“That’s because of its many psycho-social risk factors: trucks drivers or shed workers have shift work, isolation, disconnection, and for truck drivers we all know about fatigue. Then for the roughly 50,000 smaller trucking businesses in Australia there’s contract work and financial pressures, so there’s a number of very unique issues that lead to the sector being ranked where it is.”

In contrast to the many support services and organisations in existence these days designed to assist those who are already struggling, Healthy Heads in Trucks & Sheds focusses more on tips and strategies to keep workers resilient, healthy and happy, therefore safeguarding them from developing mental health issues.

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Spreading the word

Ms Frauenfelder said teaming up with R U OK? was a part of Healthy Heads’ wider roadmap to raise awareness and get more people in a typically male-dominated industry to start having conversations around mental health.

“R U OK? in Trucks & Sheds on May 17 is our inaugural day and this really is a partnership with R U Okay?,” she said.

“They’ve got a mission where we’re all connected and hence protected from suicide, and we’re representing an industry, parts of which are highly traumatised and have significant mental health risk factors.

“This is the first year we’re doing it and the idea is it will grow year on year until the point that every day becomes R U OK? day.”

The R U OK? day centres on the concept that “a conversation can change a life”, with an objective of empowering people to “meaningfully connect with the people around them and start a conversation with those in their world who may be struggling”.

As for ‘R U OK? in Trucks & Sheds’, May 17 is when anyone in the transport and logistics sector, from truck drivers to postal workers, distribution centre workers to workshop staff, can make a difference in a colleague’s life through four simple steps:

>> Ask R U OK?
>> Listen
>> Encourage action
>> Check in

For tips on how to handle that conversation, or to see how your business can get involved, click here.

For more information visit www.healthyheads.org.au/ or www.ruok.org.au/