Where does your workforce turn to for support? The Lighthouse Construction Industry Charity and the Considerate Constructors Scheme have launched a new initiative to help support construction workers and their families in times of need.

Companies can now provide their workforce with handy wallet-sized Construction Industry Helpline cards, as well as displaying posters to advertise the services.

The Construction Industry Helpline provides a free 24×7 confidential employee assistance programme for the construction workforce and their families in the UK. From highway and railway construction, to steel fixers and ground worker, the Helpline offers a completely free portfolio of welfare and support services including access to emergency financial aid, advice on occupational health and mental wellbeing and support on legal, tax and debt management matters.

The Helpline is operated by the Lighthouse Construction Industry Charity (also known as the Lighthouse Club) and is funded by the charitable generosity of the construction industry.

With the crucial support of the Considerate Constructors Scheme, the Helpline has launched a new range of packs which are available to purchase. Each pack contains wallet sized Helpline cards for distribution to the workforce and A2 posters to promote the Helpline on site. There are nine packs in total, which are suitable for sites, companies and suppliers of different contract values and annual turnover.

By purchasing a helpline pack, the site or company is pledging to hold a ‘Lighthouse Day’, where they take just one day to help raise much needed funds for the charity. Lighthouse Day can be any event of their choosing and on any day of the calendar year.

So far this year, the Helpline has received 661 requests for help, Of these, 456 calls related to mental health or wellbeing issues and advice on legal and debt management. In addition to this there were 205 new cases of construction families seeking emergency financial assistance. This year alone, the charity has granted over £275,000 to directly support construction families in crisis.

Bill Hill, Chief Executive of the Lighthouse Construction Industry Charity said, “As well as delivering emergency financial aid to those in our industry suffering hardship, we have augmented our Helpline services to support callers suffering from anxiety, stress, addictive behaviours and depression in support of the recent research into the mental health of the industry. There were more suicides in construction than in any other profession in the first half of this decade and almost half of reported occupational cancer cases relate to workers in this industry .Every year there are around 40 fatalities on UK construction sites and more than 2,000 major injuries that leave workers incapacitated.. It is now imperative that we put the Helpline Card in the hands of every construction worker in the industry. The Considerate Constructors Scheme has fully embraced this initiative right from the start and we cannot thank them enough for their enthusiastic support.”

To access the Helpline’s team of experts, call the Construction Industry Helpline on 0345 605 1956 or visit www.constructionindustryhelpline.com