Tag: FIFO workers

Blue sky mining

Blue sky mining

IT could be the calming sensation you feel when you walk in the front door of your home and kick off your shoes, or sense of camaraderie you feel at your local sport club, or any attachment you feel to a place that reflects your identity – a sense of place can mean many things. It is something that architects and interior designers try to incorporate into their designs, and there is extensive research that shows not only how a positive attachment to the place where we live is important to identity, but that the absence of this connection can be devastating to mental health. A sense of place is not something normally associated with the clinical, sterile accommodation of...

Rural and Remote Mental Health: Raising awareness

Rural and Remote Mental Health: Raising awareness

Resource Minds is an early intervention program developed from the research and results from the Wellbeing and Lifestyle Study. BY: JESSICA CUMMINS Mental health issues have plagued the fly-in, fly-out workforce for many years. But with an emerging number of programs and resources available, mining companies have many avenues to facilitate those very important conversations with employees. DR Jennifer Bowers, associate professor and managing director of Rural and Remote Mental Health (RRMH) in South Australia, has spent more than 10 years researching the prevalence of psychological distress in remote mining and construction workers. Published in the Australian Medical Journal, Dr Bowers led the Wellbeing and Lifestyle survey, which sampled about 1124 employees at 10...