Duval Construction is a large Tāmaki-based company that has just taken a bold step to cater for the mental health of its employees.
It's called Solid Ground and provides free group therapy and counselling sessions for the 500 or more people working on its construction sites, 70 per cent of whom are Māori and Pasifika.
“We conducted and undertook a presentation on-site and the feedback was astounding,” Duval development and construction director Kristen Holland says.
“There were seven guys, which amounted to 10 per cent of my workforce, saying they were struggling mentally.”
The author of the best-selling book, She is Not Your Rehab, Matt Brown has partnered with the company to create i-connect in which he will lead group therapy sessions with the workers. Brown says there is a deep connection between mental health and domestic violence.
“It (mental health) relates to domestic violence because our partners and our children are the closest people to us, so where do we go when we need to let off steam? And the majority of the time, anger is the easiest emotion to grasp,” Brown says.
The first therapy sessions begin at the end of this month.