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Mental health problems are a grave concern in construction. Although the distinction between high job demands and low job resources, as reflected in the Job Demands-Resources (JD–R) model, has been used to examine the extent to which psychosocial hazards influence mental health for construction practitioners, limited research has reflected on the nature of these psychosocial hazards by exploring experiences of site-based construction practitioners.

This study adopted a phenomenological approach to examine people’ experiences and thoughts of the complex phenomena of psychosocial hazards and mental health in construction. In total, 33 semi-structured interviews were undertaken with site-based construction practitioners in Australia to unveil construction-focused psychosocial hazards and their effects on mental health. The data were analysed via content analysis, employing an interpretation-focused coding strategy to code text and an individual-based sorting strategy to cluster codes.

Eighteen psychosocial hazards were identified based on the JD–R model. Six of these represented a new contribution, describing salient characteristics inherent to the construction context (i.e. safety concerns, exposure to traumatic events, job insecurity, task interdependency, client demand and contract pressure). Of particular importance, a number of interrelationships among psychosocial hazards emerged.

The significance of this qualitative research lies in elucidating psychosocial hazards and their complex interrelatedness in the context of the mental health of construction practitioners, enriching the understanding of this central health and safety issue in the high-risk setting of construction work. The findings contribute to addressing mental health issues in the Australian construction industry by identifying higher order control measures, thereby creating a mentally healthy workplace.

Although the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015–2030 explicitly recognizes the need for psychosocial support and mental health services, the focus of this and many disaster risk reduction and management (DRRM) plans lies in the response, recovery, and rehabilitation phases. Less attention has been given to how mental health aspects affect the predisaster phase. This chapter explores the less understood concept of “resistance” in the perspectives model of disaster mental health, which is related to DRRM themes of “prevention and mitigation” and “preparedness” interventions. Four strategies are identified by which DRRM interventions can contribute to psychosocial support and mental health: increasing stress resistance, fostering cohesion and social support, fostering positive cognition, and building self-efficacy and hardiness. We review the cases of the Philippines, Indonesia, Myanmar, and Thailand and report existing socio-political DRRM initiatives for prevention, mitigation, and preparedness that can potentially enhance resistance as a predisaster intervention. Beyond medical services or clinical mental health interventions for select populations, DRRM interventions can benefit the general public. Despite natural intersections, there remains a need for deliberate and targeted initiatives that explore how vertical pyschosocial care programs can be created to straddle both DRRM and health sectors in practice.

The purpose of this study is to identify the knowledge and management skills of health-care workers regarding psychosocial and mental health priorities and needs of individuals with COVID-19.

This is a cross-sectional descriptive study. The data collected conveniently from 101 health-care workers in Jordan directly managing care of individuals with COVID-19.

Health-care workers have moderate-to-high level of knowledge and management skills of psychological distress related to COVID-19; means ranged from 50%–70% agreement and confidence. In general, health-care workers were able to identify mental and psychosocial health needs and priorities at a moderate level. Health-care workers knowledge had a positive and significant correlation with age (r = 0.24, p = 0.012) and years of experience (r = 0.28, p = 0.004), and a significant difference was found in their management between those who are trained on psychological first aids and those who are not (t = −3.11, p = 0.003).

There is a need to train health-care workers to integrate psychosocial and mental health care to manage care psychological distress related to COVID-19.

This study is emphasizing the need for mental health psychosocial support training and in integration. Health-care workers providing care to individuals with COVID-19 are not aware of mental health priorities and needs of their patients. This paper contributes to the body of knowledge adding more understanding about competencies of health-care workers providing care and their preparedness to manage care individuals with COVID-19.

Young Australian workers are at elevated risk of mental health and alcohol and other drug related problems. The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between alcohol and drug (AOD) use, psychological wellbeing, and the workplace psychosocial environment among young apprentices in the construction industry.

A cross-sectional survey of a cohort of 169 construction industry apprentices in their first year of training was undertaken. The survey included measures of psychological distress (K10), quantity/frequency measures of alcohol and illicit drug use, and workplace psychosocial factors.

Construction industry apprentices are at elevated risk of AOD related harm and poor mental health. Levels of psychological distress and substance use were substantially higher than age/gender equivalent Australian population norms. Job stress, workplace bullying, and general social support accounted for 38.2 per cent of the variance in psychological distress. General social support moderated the effects of job stress and bullying on psychological distress. Substance use was not associated with psychological distress. However, workplace social support accounted for 2.1 per cent of the variance in AUDIT-C scores, and 2.0 per cent of the variance in cannabis use. Workplace bullying explained 2.4 per cent of the variance in meth/amphetamine use.

Construction trades apprentices are a high-risk group for harmful substance use and poor mental health. Study results indicate that psychosocial wellbeing interventions are warranted as a harm reduction strategy.

This is the first study of its kind to describe a cohort of Australian construction trade apprentices in terms of their substance use and psychological wellbeing. The study shows workplace psychosocial factors may predict young workers psychological wellbeing.

This paper describes how psychosocial interventions (PSI) have been integrated into an undergraduate mental health nursing programme. The first part of the paper provides the broad context of PSI in nurse education and justifies the need to incorporate skills for PSI into the undergraduate nursing curriculum. A variety of educational theories and research are presented, which have informed the development, structure and delivery of the skills programme underpinned by PSI into the undergraduate programme. The successes and limitations of this skills programme are considered in light of the key issues and challenges concerning the integration of PSI skills into undergraduate nursing education.

Psychosocial interventions are a core part of the service structures of mainstream mental health services. Research and clinical services for people with learning disabilities have often adopted a broadly psychosocial perspective. However, there is surprisingly little literature that considers psychosocial intervention for people with learning disabilities who have mental health problems. This paper describes the structure of psychosocial intervention and then considers the evidence base that is available to develop this approach for people with learning disabilities and mental health problems.

Disaster responders play a crucial role in providing aid to individuals and communities following catastrophic events. Being tasked to protect and preserve life and property, these groups of professionals are constantly exposed to various hazards, which puts them at risk of negative mental health consequences. This chapter describes and discusses these mental health effects and interventions for disaster responders in Southeast Asia. The chapter defines who the disaster responders are in Southeast Asian countries. Drawing from the literature, this chapter enumerates the various positive and negative psychological consequences of disaster response, and the risk and protective factors associated with disaster response work. This chapter also describes the different interventions, such as psychological first aid and psychotherapy, following the Inter-agency Standing Committee (IASC) (2007) guidelines on conducting mental health and psychosocial support services (MHPSS), and focusing on the Southeast Asian context. This chapter ends with a discussion of the different challenges of providing MHPSS in Southeast Asia and with some recommendations on how to improve the delivery of these services and the mental health of disaster responders in general.

Methamphetamine users commonly experience induced methamphetamine associated mental health symptoms. Currently, psychosocial treatment is implemented to reduce use; however, to date, the effectiveness of psychosocial treatment in methamphetamine use and the associated mental health symptoms has not been reviewed. The paper aims to discuss this issue.

A systematic literature review was performed by searching databases (PubMed, Embase, Ovid MEDLINE, PsychINFO and CINAHL) and following clear inclusion/exclusion criteria.

In total, 12 studies met the inclusion/exclusion criteria, measuring a variety of psychosocial interventions and measuring a variety of different mental health outcomes. Decreased methamphetamine use was observed in the five studies which recorded this.

Most studies in this review were preliminary trials and only three were RCTs. Additionally, methamphetamine use is a particular problem in Japan and is becoming more prevalent in Europe, yet neither primary nor secondary searching identified papers from these regions.

While the findings may not provide sufficient supporting evidence to instigate changes in clinical practice, this work should be developed further, as it is clear that psychosocial interventions can be successful in treating this population.

This review demonstrates that psychosocial treatments can improve symptoms associated with methamphetamine use. Reduction in mental health symptoms has been shown to attract individuals to drug use treatment and thus indirectly reducing methamphetamine use.

Given the consequences of methamphetamine for individuals and communities treatment options must be explored. A review of psychosocial interventions in the treatment of methamphetamine use and associated mental health symptoms had not been done previously. This review provides a foundation for further research.

Despite the efficacy, political will and numbers of mental health practitioners trained in psychosocial interventions, they remain scarcely available in routine clinical practice. External factors such as the inability of mental health organisations to develop strategies to support the use of psychosocial interventions have been implicated. This study compares data from two groups, one that had completed psychosocial intervention training (n=104) and one that had not received psychosocial intervention training (n=102). Both groups completed measures of self‐efficacy, locus of control and an application of psychosocial interventions to practice. Results showed that psychosocial intervention training significantly increased the level of self‐efficacy for using psychosocial interventions in practice. The group that had received psychosocial interventions training had lower internal locus of control orientation. Self‐efficacy was significantly related to using psychosocial interventions in practice. There is a discussion of the implications of these findings.

It is difficult to replicate evidence-informed models of psychosocial and assertive care interventions in non-research settings, and means to determine workforce capability for psychosocial therapies have not been readily available. The purpose of this paper is to describe and provide a rationale for the Therapy Capability Framework (TCF) which aims to enhance access to, and quality of, evidence-informed practice for consumers of mental health services (MHSs) by strengthening workforce capabilities and leadership for psychosocial therapies.

Guided by literature regarding the inadequacies and inconsistencies of evidence-informed practice provided by publicly-funded MHSs, this descriptive paper details the TCF and its application to enhance leadership and provision of evidence-informed psychosocial therapies within multi-disciplinary teams.

The TCF affords both individual and strategic workforce development opportunities. Applying the TCF as a service-wide workforce strategy may assist publicly-funded mental health leaders, and other speciality health services, establish a culture that values leadership, efficiency, and evidence-informed practice.

This paper introduces the TCF as an innovation to assist publicly-funded mental health leaders to transform standard case management roles to provide more evidence-informed psychosocial therapies. This may have clinical and cost-effective outcomes for public MHSs, the consumers, carers, and family members.