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Data from different countries suggest a higher prevalence of anxiety, depression and suicides among manual and trade workers in the construction industry than in the general population. The present review examines the causes and effects of poor mental health and the effectiveness of interventions to improve manual and trade workers' mental health in the construction industry. It also identifies gaps in research and makes several suggestions for practice and future research.

A systematic literature review was conducted to examine and consolidate evidence reported in 54 relevant journal articles published between 2010 and 2021 on the mental health of manual and trade workers.

Three major themes emerged in the review of the 54 journal articles: causes of poor mental health, effects of poor mental health and interventions to improve mental health. The leading causes of poor mental health among construction manual and trade workers are poor work-life balance, high job demand, poor cultural norms and mental health stigma, chronic bodily pain, lack of social support, workplace injustice and job insecurity. The prominent effects of poor mental health are suicidality, drug and alcohol addiction, poor workplace safety and poor work performance. Moreover, the study found that some of the strategies recently implemented in the construction industry to improve mental health are deemed ineffective, or their effectiveness remains inconclusive.

The review's scope is limited to research on manual and trade workers, and it did not investigate the mental health of construction professionals and construction management students.

The review provides valuable insights into the causes and effects of poor mental health among manual and trade workers and the effectiveness of mental health interventions in the construction industry.

Greener on the Outside for Prisons (GOOP) is a therapeutic horticulture programme targeting the high levels of complex health and social care needs in prisons in England. The COVID-19 pandemic and resulting lockdowns led to unprecedented disruption in prisons in England. This paper examines the experiences of prisoners both during and post-lockdowns in four prisons, to understand the effects of participation in GOOP on health and wellbeing after the disruption of restrictions, and identify implications for developing this programme further.

The paper is based on original qualitative data gathered from in-depth narrative-based interviews and focus groups with prisoners and staff in four English prisons. Audio data was transcribed and subject to a thematic analysis, drawing from a realist-informed lens.

Thematic analysis revealed five key themes: reimagining the GOOP context; increasing empathy between participants; building sense of coherence; reconnecting with nature and a joined-up connection with provider services. The main arguments centre on horticulture in prisons remaining under-utilised as a means of promoting good health and wellbeing, although there is enthusiasm from staff to provide green spaces for the most vulnerable prisoners and develop a range of mechanisms to connect people in prison with nature.

This paper focuses on new knowledge arising from an unprecedented situation in English prisons, from key stakeholders on the frontline of garden activities. Accounts demonstrate the extent of the health and wellbeing benefits of participation in such activities in this challenging environment, which has implications for practice for prisons more widely.

The purpose of this paper is to present findings on a community-based participatory research project where the authors examined access and ability to use technology, attitudes and perceptions of technology, and COVID-19 and mental health beliefs in the time of COVID-19, among predominantly Hispanic/Latinx farmworker males residing in the US–Mexico border city of El Paso, Texas.

This paper used a qualitative narrative analysis which consisted of in-person interviews in Spanish with male farmworkers (n = 10) between the ages of 49–60 years. This paper applied a research approach designed to engage researchers and community stakeholders as equal partners with the goal of improving practice.

Of the participants, eight reported having a phone and only three reported knowing how to use the internet. Before the COVID-19 pandemic, the participants reported living a relatively stress-free life. When the pandemic impacted their community, they reported experiencing heightened anxiety and stress. To relieve stress, all participants used healthy coping strategies (e.g. walking and gardening).

The findings suggest that farmworker males are receptive to obtaining mental health services. In addition, they would benefit from resources highlighting healthy stress coping mechanisms. Due to their limited knowledge of current internet technology, efforts on how to promote and deliver mental health services and resources to farmworkers should be strategic and appropriate.

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander (Aboriginal) people are overrepresented in Australian prisons, where they experience complex health needs. A model of care was designed to respond to the broad needs of the Aboriginal prisoner population within the nine adult prisons across South Australia. The purpose of this paper is to describe the methods and findings of the Model of Care for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Prisoner Health and Wellbeing for South Australia.

The project used a qualitative mixed-method approach, including a rapid review of relevant literature, stakeholder consultations and key stakeholder workshop. The project was overseen by a Stakeholder Reference Group, which met monthly to ensure that the specific needs of project partners, stakeholders and Aboriginal communities were appropriately incorporated into the planning and management of the project and to facilitate access to relevant information and key informants.

The model of care for Aboriginal prisoner health and wellbeing is designed to be holistic, person-centred and underpinned by the provision of culturally appropriate care. It recognises that Aboriginal prisoners are members of communities both inside and outside of prison. It notes the unique needs of remanded and sentenced prisoners and differing needs by gender.

Supporting the health and wellbeing of Indigenous prison populations can improve health outcomes, community health and reduce recidivism.

Only one other model of care for Aboriginal prisoner health exists in Australia, an Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisation-initiated in-reach model of care in one prison in one jurisdiction. The South Australian model of care presents principles that are applicable across all jurisdictions and provides a framework that could be adapted to support Indigenous peoples in diverse prison settings.

The purpose of this paper is to provide an example of patient-led co-production.

The New Economics Foundation’s six principles of co-production (nef, 2013) have been used to frame the activities undertaken during the author’s relationship with a community mental health nurse.

This paper describes a co-produced project between a patient and a community mental health nurse to create a range of resources and to deliver training, resulting in mutual benefit for both parties.

This paper invites policy makers to consider the unique role that community mental health nurses can play in supporting patients with long-term challenges that have developed because of an imbalance and an abuse of power within earlier relationships; by adopting a co-production approach, centred on the patient’s interests and skills, a working partnership can be achieved wherein both parties feel that they matter.

Co-production is usually used with groups of stakeholders working together in an equitable way to design or deliver a new service; this paper, however, seeks to demonstrate how the process can be effectively used when the project is patient-led within the context of a therapeutic relationship.

This paper aims to identify the factors that influence students' mental health, particularly in the context of MBA students passing through an emotional phase of the placement season.

A conceptual model through literature has been proposed. To test the proposed model of this study, a survey was conducted among the students of three MBA institutes of national reputation in India. The study's hypotheses were investigated using partial least squares-structural equations modeling and analysis of variance. To corroborate the findings of the survey data, a qualitative study in the form of open-ended interviews with five students was conducted.

The study revealed that female students, non-engineering graduates and students from non-family business backgrounds undergo stress, anxiety and depression higher than their classmates. Cumulative grade point average and bank loans do not significantly affect students' stress, anxiety and depression during the placement season. It was found that the increase in the levels of mindfulness scores led to a significant negative impact on stress, anxiety and depression among the students.

There is a gap in the literature that addresses the mental health of MBA students during campus job placements and the role of mindfulness in mitigating stress, anxiety and depression in these students. This research attempts to fill these research gaps.

This paper describes the development of a digital role play game (RPG) designed to help construction apprentices to better communicate with their supervisors about issues with the potential to impact on their physical and psychological health and safety.

A participatory approach was adopted to utilise the knowledge and insights of the target users to inform the digital RPG development. Apprentices and supervisors were interviewed to identify characteristics of effective supervisor-apprentice communication, which became the RPG’s learning objectives. The scenarios constructed in the RPG were drawn from lived experiences shared by the apprentices in the interviews. During the development process, consultations were conducted with an advisory committee comprising of apprentices and supervisors to improve the realism of the RPG scenarios.

Three scenarios were developed for the RPG. In each scenario, players are asked to make decisions at various interaction points about how the characters should respond to the unfolding and challenging situations. Scripts were developed for the game, which were acted out and motion captured to animate digital MetaHuman characters embedded in a virtual construction site. Two example situations are introduced in this paper to illustrate the development process.

To our knowledge, the RPG introduced is one of the first applications of digital game-based training in the construction industry. The adoption of a participatory design approach ensures that the game content relates to real-world experiences. The digital RPG is highly interactive and engaging in nature and presents a novel approach to developing “soft” skills in construction.

Secure children’s homes (SCHs) restrict the liberty of young people considered to be a danger to themselves or others. However, not all young people referred to SCHs find a placement, and little is known about the outcomes of the young person after an SCH or alternative placement. The purpose of this paper is to understand which characteristics most likely predict allocation to an SCH placement, and to explore the outcomes of the young people in the year after referral.

A retrospective electronic cohort study was conducted using linked social care data sets in England. The study population was all young people from England referred to SCHs for welfare reasons between 1st October 2016 to 31st March 2018 (n = 527). Logistic regression tested for differences in characteristics of SCH placement allocation and outcomes in the year after referral.

In total, 60% of young people referred to an SCH were allocated a place. Factors predicting successful or unsuccessful SCH allocation were previous placement in an SCH (OR = 2.12, p = 0.01); being female (OR = 2.26, p = 0.001); older age (OR = 0.75, p = 0.001); and a history of challenging behaviour (OR = 0.34, p = 0.01). In the year after referral, there were little differences in outcomes between young people placed in a SCH versus alternative accommodation.

The study raised concerns about the capacity of current services to recognise and meet the needs of this complex and vulnerable group of young people and highlights the necessity to explore and evaluate alternatives to SCHs.

Despite the prevalence of uncivil behaviors across families and past studies attributing work stressors to suicidal ideation (SI), there is no conclusive evidence of the interactive effect of family incivility (FI) aggravating SI. Hence, the purpose of this study is to explore the association between FI and SI through emotional exhaustion (EE) in the workplace and regulation of emotion.

A time lag (T1 and T2) study is applied for primary data collection using a survey questionnaire. The partial least squares–structural equational modeling algorithm tests reliability, validity and hypotheses.

Experiencing FI exacerbates SI, while the regulation of emotion and EE mediate the association between FI and SI.

Professionals are advised to adopt regulation of emotion that fosters desirable behavior and shields targets from FI and EE, minimizing the intensity of SI.

This study significantly adds to how FI and EE aggravate SI and contribute to the body of knowledge on the regulation of emotion in stress and coping mechanisms.

The purpose of this study is to highlight and demonstrate how the study of stress and related responses in construction can best be measured and benchmarked effectively.

A range of perceptual and physiological measures are obtained across different time periods and during different activities in a fieldwork setting. Differences in the empirical results are analysed and implications for future studies of stress discussed.

The results of this study strongly support the use of multiple psychometrics and biosensors whenever biometrics are included in the study of stress. Perceptual, physiological and environmental factors are all shown to act in concert to impact stress. Strong conclusions on the potential drivers of stress should then only be considered when consistent results apply across multiple metrics, time periods and activities.

Stress is an incredibly complex condition. This study demonstrates why many current applications of biosensors to study stress in construction are not up to the task and provides empirical evidence on how future studies can be significantly improved.

To the best of the author’s knowledge, this is the first study to focus explicitly on demonstrating the need for multiple research instruments and settings when studying stress or related conditions in construction.