Friday, April 19, 2024 
Friday, April 19, 2024
February 23, 2020
Jorgen Gullestrup was a teenage plumbing apprentice in his native Denmark when he began struggling with depression.
“I tried to take my own life,” he said during a phone interview from Queensland, Australia, where, after successful treatment for his mental-health struggles, he immigrated several years later.
In his new country, he became a construction industry union leader and saw workers lost to suicide.
“Each time that happened, you can’t help thinking it could be your family,” he said Thursday, as he prepared to head to the airport bound for speaking events in St. John’s.
Harkening back to his supportive employer in Denmark and the second chance he got, Gullestrup joined with others who wanted to create change in the Australian construction industry. They raised funds to get university researchers to investigate the incidence of suicide rates in the industry.
Six workers were lost to suicide for every fatal accident, Gullestrup said.
Efforts to tackle the crisis led to the formation of the MATES in Construction, whose mission is to be Australia’s leading industry suicide prevention organization. It is independent of industry and unions.
And while Gullestrup, the CEO and founder, is careful not to make any claims the organization is directly responsible for a drop in suicide rates, he acknowledged it’s definitely helping.
The MATES in Construction program includes awareness campaigns, intervention training, a 24-hour suicide hotline and grief counselling.
On Wednesday, Gullestrup will be the keynote speaker at the Newfoundland and Labrador Construction Safety Association’s annual health and safety conference.
The association noted Gullestrup will also deliver mental-health/suicide awareness training for other organizations while he is in St. John’s, including the Canadian Mental Health Association–NL. He will also meet with industry leaders to discuss how the MATES in Construction framework might be adapted in Newfoundland and Labrador, which has an economy geared toward long-distance commute/turnaround shifts on major construction projects, as well as the oil and gas industry.
Gullestrup noted risk factors for construction workers include the long hours of work as well as isolation from home and the feeling of being disconnected.
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