Steering Healthy Minds Transport Industry Mental Health Initiative – Pilot Program Evaluation Report

It is estimated that poor mental health in the heavy vehicle road transport industry costs Queensland 10 million dollars every year. This includes business losses as well as workers compensation claims with return-to-work rates being 30% lower than in other industries. More alarmingly the suicide rate in male road and rail drivers was nearly 30% higher than that of other occupations from 2001-2010 (Milner, Page & LaMontagne 2015). The Steering Healthy Minds Pilot Program (SHMPP) was developed to address the mental health issues being experienced by workers in the transport industry. Steering Healthy Minds (SHM) is a collaboration between key organisations with interests in the transport industry. All of these organisations recognise that mental health issues in the industry are on the rise and want to offer meaningful support for workers and establish programs and support for employers. Founding organisations are Transport Education Audit Compliance Health Organisation, Transport Workers Union QLD, Queensland Trucking Association, Queensland Council of Unions, Kitney OHS, WorkCover Queensland and TWU Super. Presented is the final report presented to the TWU (Qld) in respect of this transport industry grant funding.