In all walks of life, mental health is becoming a more prevalent issue, with one in four people being affected. Scotland Development Conference sponsor BOHO have highlighted the issues surrounding mental health, and Pagabo wanted to champion this movement towards better mental health. Both companies want to raise mental health awareness and the impacts it is having on people’s lives in construction, right through to the people living within the builds.

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Student housing, rental and hotel company BOHO look to create bespoke builds to put life and personality into their properties. By using a flamingo bird for the logo, it has created an ethos of everyone living in harmony with each other.

At BOHO health and wellbeing matter. This includes mental health and they understand the important role that they can play to help break down stigma. BOHO endeavour to raise awareness, encourage conversations and make the safety and wellbeing of our residents our number one priority. To achieve this, from the offset they conduct research into their buildings and who is going to live there. The staffing model is then created based on this, always with residents in mind and what works best for those living in that building. BOHO strive to create inclusive communities for everyone to live in, feel safe and enjoy. 

At BOHO student accommodation, they don’t believe in adopting the traditional student accommodation staff model where the core team work Monday to Friday 8am-6pm and rely on an outsourced security company to cover evenings and weekends. They believe this is when people are more likely to feel alone or vulnerable and having their team there to be a friendly face to talk to is important. As a result of this, BOHO  Scotway House staff will receive training on first aid, mental health first aid and suicide prevention. They will be available Monday to Friday 24hrs with Saturday and Sunday also having a staff presence. These additional hours are also valuable for customer service and putting on fun social events to ensure they deliver a fantastic student experience.

Pagabo realise procurement can be challenging, complex and time consuming. They make it quicker, simpler and more effective. Pagabo’s framework agreements connect you to the right contractors for a full range of works, services and goods. They’re free to access, easy to use and fully compliant – with frameworks suitable for every purchasing project. 

In the construction industry, mental health is becoming a more prevalent issue. Mental health is currently seen as a taboo topic with the ‘hard’ builder image being built up, preventing workers from opening up about their problems. Pagabo have set up the Pagabo Foundation. The main aim of this initiative is to signpost the mental health issues and fund existing mental health charities. We also hope to ensure financial support is made available to SMEs and other organisations working in the construction industry, providing a platform for greater future support for construction workers and to help support their workforce with any mental health related issues.

In the name of raising funds to support mental health awareness in the construction industry, Pagabo are planning something big, called Chitty Chitty Cannes Cannes. Between the 6th and 8th of March 2020 teams will be taking part in the road trip of a lifetime, travelling from Hull to Cannes by car in time for the annual MIPIM event. With a series of challenges planned, and some great locations to pass on the way, this trip promises to be full of thrills and spills.

It is great to see that Pagabo and BOHO alike are making the move to break the taboo around mental health and signpost the issue. It’s time to break down stigma and make people feel comfortable to open up and talk. Don’t suffer in silence, no one is alone. [/emaillocker]