Mental Health First Aid Program Caterpillar is the result of Caterpillar recognizing after systematically working on their Safety Culture and capacity. What they realised was they could address the physical conditions causing some of the injuries by replicating and improving on their current processes but recognised there was still a gap. There was the inner issues relating to mental health that also needed to be addressed and this is what Mental Health First Aid aim to achieve.
2011 -The inception of the Mental Health First Aid Program (MHFA)
- We were nearing the peak of the Mining Boom Our workforce was around 850
- We operated 24hrs x 5 day’s per week on 3 shifts
- We were training unskilled recruits to semi skilled welders
- Our injury rate was trending in the wrong direction
Data Driven Analysis –Injuries Experienced
Cause types Contributing factors Hot spots and frequent flyers Length of service and employment status Recovery duration and rehabilitation
What did the data tell us?
- Finger, Hand and eye injuries were increasing
- Causing cuts, lacerations, contusions and foreign bodies
- 70% of all injuries sustained by agency workers
- Employees sustaining injuries in 2+years service
- Agency workers sustaining injuries in first 6 months
- We had a small group of team members presenting with frequent low level treatments with long recovery times
So what’s the link to Mental Health First Aid ?
- We were systematically working on our Safety Culture and capacity and knew we could address the physical conditions causing some of the injuries by replicating and improving on our current processes:
- Programs: Safety Leadership, RCCA Investigations, Stop to Fix, Near Miss and Hazard Reporting, Alcohol & Drug Testing
- Replication:11thFingerProject(removing fingers & hands from the Line of Fire)
- But we still felt there was a gap…..