Bruno Efoti vividly recalls the day a fellow tradie started breaking down in front of him at a worksite.
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It was a couple of years ago and the Dubbo carpenter thought “okay, this is serious” and sat down to listen.
Some time later he was still listening to the “realness” of what his fellow tradie was sharing.
“I didn’t have any advice to give, but I was able to listen and he thanked me at the end of it,” Mr Efoti said.
“I said, ‘I didn’t do anything, I was just listening’ and he said ‘I felt comfortable sharing this with you’.
The experience of encountering the man in his time of need sparked Mr Efoti on a journey to help tradies with their mental health.
“I think that day made me realise there was something I could do, more than just doing work and since then I’ve had a couple of other people come and do the same thing and talk to me about stuff... and I realised there’s a lot of problems these guys are going through that we don’t know of or they don’t have anyone to talk to about.”
The carpenter and business owner has formed a new Facebook group, Tradies In Sight, “supporting tradies’ mental health in central west NSW”, and it already has about 160 members.
One of its first initiatives is to hold the Tradies Get Together evening on April 27.
Former Wallaby and motivational speaker James Holbeck will be guest speaker at the free event, to be held at the Buninyong SACC in Myall Street.
Mr Efoti said the more he studied, the more he realised he had come across the issue.
“Statistics tell us the suicide rate in Australia happens more in construction, six times more actually, so that’s a staggering percentage,” Mr Efoti said.
“So one in five [people] suffers from mental health issues in Australia.
“Those figures made me realise that we’ve got to do something about this…”
Tradies can head to the get-together at 5.30pm after knock-off and there will be afternoon tea and a pig on the spit for dinner.
A number of industry businesses and the Dubbo Rhinos Rugby Club have sponsored the evening.
“I’m wanting to normalise the conversation around it [mental health] so [tradies] feel it’s natural to open up and talk about it,” Mr Efoti said.
Faye Wheeler
I have been a journalist for more than a decade and in that time I have been keeping Daily Liberal readers up to date about issues affecting them and what's happening in their community. Throughout my career I have covered a range of rounds and most recently I have been focusing on the business round.
I have been a journalist for more than a decade and in that time I have been keeping Daily Liberal readers up to date about issues affecting them and what's happening in their community. Throughout my career I have covered a range of rounds and most recently I have been focusing on the business round.
