Mental Health in the Construction Industry
Mental Health in the Construction Industry: Why Prevention Must Start with How We Work
Construction has made enormous progress in protecting people from physical hazards. Risk assessments, method statements, permits, inductions and inspections are embedded into everyday project delivery.
Mental health has not always been managed with the same discipline.
For many years, the industry’s response focused on encouraging people to speak up, appointing Mental Health First Aiders and providing helplines. These measures remain valuable, but they often support people only after they have begun to struggle.
The publication of the Construction Leadership Council’s Mental Health Joint Code of Practice in June 2026 represents an important change. It asks employers, clients, consultants and contractors to consider whether the way work is designed, procured, planned and managed is contributing to poor mental health in the first place.
This matters across the construction industry. The pressures experienced by a site manager may look different from those affecting a design engineer, but both can be exposed to excessive workloads, unclear responsibilities, commercial pressure and a culture in which admitting difficulty feels risky.
What does the evidence tell us?
The Chartered Institute of Building’s Understanding Mental Health in the Built Environment 2025 report found that, among those surveyed:
- 94% had experienced stress during the previous year.
- 83% had experienced anxiety.
- 60% had experienced depression.
- More than one quarter had experienced suicidal thoughts.
- 20% experienced fatigue every day.
These figures come from a survey rather than the entire construction workforce, so they should not be interpreted as national prevalence estimates. Nevertheless, they demonstrate the severity of the experiences reported by a substantial group of construction professionals.
The report also found signs of improvement. More than half of respondents had access to a Mental Health First Aider, compared with 35% in the CIOB’s 2020 research. More than three quarters had been encouraged to participate in mental health awareness activities. However, almost 70% believed their line manager would not know how to undertake a stress risk assessment or recognise when one was required.
The wider national picture is also concerning. The Health and Safety Executive reported that 964,000 workers experienced work-related stress, depression or anxiety during 2024/25. These conditions accounted for 52% of all self-reported work-related ill health in Great Britain.
Suicide data must be discussed carefully and sensitively. Historical analysis by the Office for National Statistics found that low-skilled male construction workers faced a suicide risk approximately three times higher than the male national average. More recent ONS datasets continue to monitor suicide deaths among construction workers, including deaths registered between 2011 and 2024. Differences in occupational definitions and reporting periods mean that statistics should always be presented with their source and date.
Behind every statistic is a person, as well as colleagues, friends and family members affected by their experience.
Why can construction be particularly demanding?
Mental ill health does not have one cause. Personal circumstances, physical health, relationships, finances and previous experiences can all affect someone’s wellbeing. However, working conditions can create or intensify pressure.
Construction combines technical complexity with commercial urgency. Projects must meet deadlines, budgets, safety requirements, quality standards and client expectations, often while designs, programmes and site conditions continue to change.
Common sources of pressure include:
- Long working hours and irregular shifts.
- Frequent travel and time away from home.
- Unrealistic deadlines and insufficient resources.
- Late design changes and poorly controlled scope.
- Commercial disputes and delayed payments.
- Job insecurity and reliance on short-term project pipelines.
- Unclear responsibilities and conflicting instructions.
- Blame-focused responses to errors.
- Poor communication between clients, consultants and contractors.
- A culture in which asking for help may be interpreted as weakness.
The exact combination varies between consulting and contracting environments.
Mental health in engineering consultancy
Consulting engineers may work in offices or hybrid environments, but this does not mean their roles are free from construction-related pressures.
A civil engineer might be responsible for several projects simultaneously, each with separate deadlines, budgets, clients and approval authorities. A relatively small request can develop into unplanned design work, additional modelling, drawing revisions and coordination meetings.
Common pressures include:
Competing deadlines
Engineers may be expected to progress several submissions at once. When every project is described as urgent, prioritisation becomes difficult and individuals may feel personally responsible for delays caused by wider programme decisions.
Fee and utilisation pressure
Consultancies must manage chargeable time and fixed project fees. Engineers can feel caught between completing a task thoroughly and remaining within the allocated budget. This becomes particularly stressful when scope has increased but the programme and fee have not been adjusted.
Technical responsibility
Design decisions can affect safety, cost, planning approval, construction and long-term maintenance. Early-career engineers may worry about making mistakes, particularly when checking and supervision arrangements are unclear.
Constant digital availability
Email, instant messaging, online meetings and remote access can make it difficult to disconnect. Hybrid working offers flexibility, but it can also blur the boundary between work and personal time.
Limited feedback and isolation
Engineers working remotely or across multiple teams may receive tasks without enough context. They can spend long periods trying to solve problems alone because they do not want to appear incapable.
Consultancies should therefore look beyond offering wellbeing apps or occasional awareness sessions. They need to examine resource planning, fee management, checking procedures, role clarity and the behaviour modelled by senior staff.
Mental health in contracting and site delivery
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Contracting environments create a different set of challenges. Site teams work within fixed construction programmes, where delays can have immediate financial and operational consequences. They must coordinate labour, plant, materials, temporary works, inspections, subcontractors and changing site conditions |
Contracting environments create a different set of challenges.
Site teams work within fixed construction programmes, where delays can have immediate financial and operational consequences. They must coordinate labour, plant, materials, temporary works, inspections, subcontractors and changing site conditions.
Common pressures include:
Long and inflexible working patterns
Early starts, weekend work, night shifts and extended travel can reduce recovery time and affect family life. Fatigue can also weaken concentration and decision making, creating a connection between psychological wellbeing and physical safety.
Programme and commercial pressure
Site teams may be required to recover delays caused by weather, design information, utilities or material availability. Pressure is often transferred down the supply chain even where the affected worker had little control over the original cause.
Employment and financial insecurity
Self-employed workers and subcontractors may face uncertainty between projects, delayed payment or fear that raising a concern could affect future work.
Exposure to incidents
Construction workers may witness accidents, serious near misses or traumatic events. The psychological effects of these experiences can continue after the physical danger has passed.
Site culture
Direct language and humour can help teams bond, but they can also discourage people from discussing stress, anxiety or personal difficulties. Workers may remain silent because they fear ridicule or being regarded as unreliable.
A contractor’s mental health strategy must therefore address working hours, welfare facilities, supervision, supply-chain practices, payment and site culture. A poster in the welfare cabin cannot compensate for consistently unmanageable conditions.
The CLC Mental Health Joint Code of Practice
 Construction Leadership Council |
The Construction Leadership Council published the first edition of its Mental Health Joint Code of Practice on 15 June 2026. It was developed with contributions from government, industry, academia and organisations including the Department for Business and Trade, Heathrow, The Crown Estate, BAM, Mates in Mind and the University of Warwick. The Code’s central principle is prevention. Instead of treating poor mental health primarily as an individual problem, it examines how construction work is created and managed. It identifies five groups of workplace hazards. |
1. Working patterns
This includes excessive hours, poorly designed shifts, long-distance travel and extended periods away from home.
Employers should monitor actual working time, not merely contracted hours. Programmes should allow reasonable recovery periods, and managers should avoid presenting routine overwork as evidence of commitment.
2. Operational demands
This includes workload, commercial pressure, unrealistic deadlines, insufficient planning and poor coordination.
Clients and project leaders influence this risk through procurement choices, programme expectations and the resources made available. The cheapest or fastest delivery strategy may transfer significant psychological pressure to the people completing the work.
3. People factors and the working environment
This covers relationships, behaviour, dignity, welfare, inclusion, bullying and the general culture in which work is undertaken.
People need to be able to question decisions, report problems and admit uncertainty without humiliation or retaliation. This is particularly important in safety-critical work, where silence can allow technical and operational risks to grow.
4. Financial issues
Late payment, insecure employment and personal financial pressure can have serious effects on mental health.
Fair payment is therefore more than a commercial principle. It is also a workforce wellbeing issue, particularly for small subcontractors and self-employed workers.
5. Support factors
Workers must be able to identify and access appropriate support. Stigma, low mental health literacy and uncertainty about confidentiality can prevent people from seeking help.
The Code also recognises the limits of internal support roles. Mental Health First Aiders and supportive colleagues can listen and signpost, but they are not substitutes for trained medical professionals. Organisations should define these boundaries clearly and support the people carrying out such roles.
This is a significant development because it places mental health alongside other foreseeable workplace risks. It challenges organisations to eliminate the risk where possible, reduce it where elimination is not possible and reduce the harm when exposure remains.
What are construction companies doing?
Several organisations are moving beyond awareness campaigns towards more structured support.
BAM reports having more than 430 wellbeing champions and over 60 wellbeing benefits. Its approach includes professional support, suicide awareness, stress risk assessment, monitoring stress-related absence and encouraging leaders to model healthier boundaries.
Kier is piloting the Joint Code of Practice on construction projects at Piccadilly. The pilot considers working hours, travel, deadlines, planning, communication, welfare, behaviour, payment pressures and access to support. This is particularly valuable because it tests the Code at project level, where working conditions are actually experienced.
Mott MacDonald led the development of the Association for Consultancy and Engineering’s practical guide to managing wellbeing risk in engineering consultancies. This is important because consultant pressures can be less visible than site hazards. The guidance treats wellbeing as a business and risk-management issue for the consultancy sector rather than simply an employee benefit.
The Lighthouse Charity provides emotional, physical and financial support to the construction community. Its 2024 Impact Report states that it delivered more than £5 million of charitable support and assisted 5,695 families, representing a 29% increase from the previous year.
Its services include a confidential helpline, wellbeing training and a free self-support app.
These examples show progress, but access to services is only one part of the solution. Support cannot fully compensate for excessive workloads, damaging behaviour or poorly planned projects.
What should better practice look like?
A credible mental health strategy should operate at three levels.
Organisational action
Companies should:
- Include psychosocial hazards in health and safety management systems.
- Assess work-related stress and act on the findings.
- Set realistic programmes, budgets and staffing levels.
- Monitor working hours, travel and fatigue.
- Define responsibilities and escalation routes clearly.
- Manage change and scope growth transparently.
- Pay employees and suppliers fairly and promptly.
- Provide confidential access to professional support.
- Review trends in absence, turnover, grievances and excessive overtime.
Project and line-management action
Managers should:
- Check workloads regularly rather than waiting for someone to complain.
- Ask whether deadlines are achievable with the resources available.
- Create safe opportunities for people to admit uncertainty or mistakes.
- Avoid contacting staff outside working hours unless genuinely necessary.
- Give clear priorities when several tasks compete.
- Hold supportive conversations after serious incidents or near misses.
- Understand the boundary between listening and providing clinical advice.
- Escalate concerns where someone may be at immediate risk.
Individual action
Individuals can:
Individuals should be encouraged to look after their wellbeing, but they should not be expected to become resilient enough to tolerate harmful working conditions. |
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Mental health is an engineering and management issue
Poor mental health can affect concentration, communication, judgement and the willingness to raise concerns. These are all essential to safe engineering and construction.
An exhausted designer may miss a coordination issue. A site manager under severe pressure may accept an unsafe shortcut. A graduate who fears embarrassment may avoid asking for a design check. A subcontractor worried about future work may remain silent about unreasonable demands.
Mental health is therefore not separate from project delivery. It is connected to quality, safety, productivity, retention and professional responsibility.
The CLC Joint Code of Practice provides the industry with a stronger framework, but its value will depend on implementation. Signing a commitment or appointing Mental Health First Aiders is not enough if deadlines remain routinely unrealistic, people are afraid to challenge decisions and overwork is treated as normal.
The next stage of progress must be to design mentally healthier work.
That means better planning, clearer responsibility, fairer commercial practices, respectful leadership and support that people can access before they reach crisis point.
Sources and further reading
- Construction Leadership Council: Mental Health Joint Code of Practice
- CIOB: Understanding Mental Health in the Built Environment 2025
- Health and Safety Executive: Construction statistics in Great Britain 2025
- Health and Safety Executive: Work-related ill health statistics
- Office for National Statistics: Suicide deaths among construction workers, 2011 to 2024
- Mates in Mind: Mental Health in Construction Joint Code of Practice
- BAM: Wellbeing and the CLC Joint Code of Practice
- Lighthouse Charity
Where to find help
If you or someone you know is in immediate danger, call 999 or go to the nearest Accident and Emergency department.
If you are in the UK, Construction workers and their families can contact the Lighthouse Charity’s confidential helpline on 0345 605 1956.
You can also contact Samaritans free on 116 123, speak to a GP or access NHS mental health services.
What To Do Next
These articles are designed to help you build structured knowledge, professional awareness, and confidence, particularly in preparation for your Professional Review interview and written submissions.
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