DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — When it comes to good mental health, truckers and those who run trucking companies, are taking steps to address the unique challenges that the industry faces such as isolation, a sedentary lifestyle and time away from loved ones.
During the recent National Association of Publicly Funded Truck Driving School’s (NAPFTDS) annual conference, Lauren Ramnath Daharry, a licensed mental health counselor and certified yoga instructor, spoke to the crowd about how vital it is to address these needs.
“Drivers are at risk for risk of occupational health induced conditions, meaning mental health and psychiatric disorders,” Daharry said. “How many of you have thought about that when it comes to your driver? This is due to high occupational stress, low access to health and limited social support. Think about sitting in a cab all day. That’s your office. You don’t get to go to the water cooler and talk about last night’s game with someone. It’s just you. Mental health promotion, assessment and treatment should be a priority to improve overall trucking environment for truckers. The transportation industry and safety on highways. And it starts here with education.”
According to Daharry, a prime example is basic first aid requirements such as CPR training or how to attend to physical wounds in an accident. But what do you do if you see someone in a mental health crisis? Do you have the knowledge on how to address it?
“We learned the steps, the chain of survival,” Daharry said. “We do first aid, you know, basic first aid spewing blood. You cover it up, you go get help, call 9 1 1. However, what do you do when someone is suicidal? How do you know someone is suicidal? And that’s a word everyone went…she just said it. The ’S’ word suicide. That’s a tough subject, isn’t it? We don’t want to talk about, we’re like, I’ll leave it over there if I don’t look at it. It doesn’t exist. Oh, it does. What are you doing? How do you even know that a student or a loved one or coworker, colleague, manager, anybody is having these thoughts, having these feelings. They’re not just gonna come out and say it. I’m gonna kill myself.”
Mental Health First Aid
“Mental Health First Aid teaches you how to assist and support others who may be experiencing a mental health or substance abuse challenge,” Daharry said. “Truckers have enough on their plate. Educators have enough on their plate. It’s easy to overlook. Something as simple as mental health. It is physical health. Part of our body, brain. The brain doesn’t work. The rest of the body stopped in a 2012 study. And this is how old and dated our information is. There is nothing new coming out in the area. Research shows that 28% of truckers are suffering from loneliness. I think that number’s higher now. 27% reported depression. 21% reported sleep disturbances. We’re talking about what? 80, 80 plus cycles. Truckers can go so many hours before you have to stop. It’s a lot of hours to be full on the road. 14.5% percent report anxiety. Do you really want that on the road? They’re not thinking about the road. They are thinking ahead. They’re not where their feet are. And that’s the scary part. 13 others, 13% of others report other emotional problems. These are your, your typical, you know, bipolar or border person line. And sometimes those cognitive tests don’t pick it up. And you do put that driver behind the road. And what if they are in a manic episode and they don’t sleep for three days? How safe is that? Or they’re in a depressive state where they are nothing but sleepy, can’t keep their eyes on the road. This is where you try to figure out how to help this person. So essentially, Mental Health First Aid is a training certificate. It’s a training program. It is information that is brought to you that can go through these five basic steps.”
Telehealth Advances
According to Daharry, advances in Telehealth have greatly opened up the opportunities to get mental health care, but not all companies are taking advantage of these programs. An average of 56 days are missed due to illness. Each mentally distress worker can cost an employer over $5,700 in turnover.
“Like that situation where the driver leaves and comes back in 30 days, gotta retrain them,” Daharry said. “Or that student who drops out the program and then comes back for another semester. Gotta restart. That’s money costs in turnover. Mental health conditions. So when we talk about mental health, it’s not always just this whole depression, anxiety. There is so much more into this wellbeing. Mental wellbeing is what it should be called. Factors that contribute to employer costs and lost time. Job turnover, healthcare, mental health, believe it or not, is associated with other physical imbalances. It’s all related. And those are even more hard to monetize, such as high blood pressure, diabetes, thyroid, cancer. All of these things are linked to a mental component.
“You’re talking not only the employees or your students, you’re talking about the families too. These are the people who suffer the most. And especially under that substance abuse category that hits the family hard. ’cause It’s not only the parent or the son in recovery. The entire family is in recovery. And that’s lost time, lost wages, lost everything. And for you as a company or a school, you want that person there, but you have now sent ’em to rehab to feel better. Why? ’cause they couldn’t cope with the stress when it could have been brought up three months ago. Hey, you’re not looking so good today. Take a second, talk to me and let’s see if we can get you some help. A mental health first aider would be trained on that.”
Healthy Bodies, Healthy Minds
“Mental distress and illness can be an expensive problem,” Daharry, said. “However, providing resources to assist workers with their mental health sounds like a good investment to me. You’re gonna reduce your absenteeism and presenteeism. And I’m not talking about just being here. How many of you have been physically at work, but mentally somewhere else? Yep. There we go. How many of you are in Cancun right now? Right? There we go. Mentally, yes, we’re in Cancun, right? But we’re physically in Daytona. That’s presenteeism. How often, how much work can you really get done if your minds not in it? You have to be where your feet are. I love the slogan. Be where your feet are improved. Employee productivity and engagement. If your employee or your student feels that you understand and you are connected to them, they will not hesitate to say, ‘hey, I need a mental health day.’ And yes, it may be one day down, but could save you a fatality. It could save you a lifelong of hurt for someone else. Enhanced workplace safety, school safety and morale. Someone who wants to be there versus someone who doesn’t wanna be there. Make difference. When you love what you do, you never work a day in your life and reduce healthcare expenses. Medical claims are reduced at least by $200 for every $100 vested in mental health benefits and services. And I’m not talking about giving them a pizza party, introducing these strategies to them. It’s okay to talk, stretching, simple things like that. Just take a break. Time out early intervention can prevent more serious mental health issues leading to reduced healthcare costs. Now that you’ve identified that this student or driver has panic attacks, you do a check-in, Hey, how are we feeling? On a scale of one to 10, they’re saying out of 10, okay, go home. Because guess what? Now you have less to worry about when it comes to high blood pressure and other cardiovascular diseases because anxiety is directly linked into those things.”
Taking a Proactive Approach
According to Daharry, Mental Health First Aid originated in Australia where it is taught by the National Safety Council. When it comes mental health, there are so many factors that need to be taken into consideration such as childhood trauma, PTSD, anxiety, depression etc. It can manifest in a plethora of ways. By being proactive and training both drivers and those in leadership positions how to get the right solution to help an employee succeed, it is another tool to keep the roads safer. Having a mental health crisis is not a weakness. It should be treated the same as a physical illness.
“You can’t teach empathy,” Daharry said. “You gotta have it. You’ve got to have it. I could teach you 10 million things, but I cannot teach you how to be empathetic. That’s why we do reflective listening and listening non-judgmentally. I did not ask you all to listen empathetically, because not everyone can do that. But if you have it, possess it, work it. Some of us who don’t, go get the people who can. And that’s just a matter of knowing yourself. And I can also help with that.”
To learn more about Mental Health First Aid, www.craftycounseling.com
Dana Guthrie is an award-winning journalist who has been featured in multiple newspapers, books and magazines across the globe. She is currently based in the Atlanta, Georgia, area.
