Northern Ireland contractor Farrans has been celebrated for its commitment to health and wellbeing in the workplace.

The firm secured two awards at the recent Mates in Mind Impact Awards held last week in London.

Farrans won Best Overall Workplace Mental Health Programme and Training and Development Advisor Lisa Haycock was Highly Commended, Mental Health Lead. This is the third year in a row Lisa has been recognised for her contribution to the health and wellbeing agenda.

The Mates in Mind Impact Awards are an annual event which aim to celebrate contributions to improving mental health within their workplaces and across the wider sector.

Farrans has partnered with Action Mental Health and Dan Long Associates to launch an innovative internal training course which seeks to tackle mental health conversations head on.

In construction, men are three times more likely to die by suicide than the national average for men.

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The company's newly rolled out 'Have the Conversation' sessions aim to provide all employees with the correct training to manage situations arising from these conversations.

The in-person half day training involves actors from Dan Long Associates role playing relevant scenarios with the audience offering their thoughts on how to approach certain conversations or how to direct the discussion in the most helpful way. The actors replay the scenarios and the participants are able to learn from the changes and know how to better handle these situations should they arise.

The training also includes advice on seeking help from our panel of experts, Action Mental Health, and representatives from the company's HR team.

Lisa Haycock, Training and Development Advisor, Farrans Construction, said: "We are proud to have already had 90 employees taking part in Have the Conversation. Several years ago, we found a gap in support for our employees. Feedback from managers offered us a better understanding of their openness to conversations around mental health but a lack of training was holding people back, specifically on how to best manage potential situations arising from these conversations.

"Have the Conversation helps us to create a space where our people feel they can reach out to seek help and we want to ensure the training is in place on how to react should those conversations happen. In addition to this, we have trained mental health first aiders on over 30 of our project sites, a 24/7 counselling and support health line, GP anytime and a Wellbeing App, all of which form part of our holistic 'Well Together' strategy."