PERTH (miningweekly.com) – The Chamber of Minerals and Energy of Western Australia (CME) has told the state’s Parliamentary Inquiry into the mental health of fly-in, fly-out (FIFO) employees that they should look beyond the job-site to find a cause for the recent spate of suicides.

In August this year, the Parliamentary Committee launched an investigation into the mental health of the FIFO community after nine FIFO workers claimed their own lives over the past 12 months.

In a submission to the inquiry, CME deputy chief executive Nicole Roocke noted that despite the assertions that the suicide rate was higher among FIFO workers, this could not be substantiated, and casual factors had not been identified.

Roocke pointed out that proportionately, even at the unsubstantiated rate of nine in the last 12 months, the rate of suspected suicides in FIFO workers per year would be 13.4 per 100 000, whereas the state’s rate is 13.2 per 100 000, or for nonurban areas of Western Australia 18.5 per 100 000.

“This shows suicides in FIFO worker [suicides] are occurring at a similar rate to that of the state and well below those occurring in the regions.  This should not diminish the impact these suicides have had, [but] rather ... highlight where the focus of efforts should be.”

Roocke noted that in recent years, employees doing FIFO work have been extensively researched, particularly in relation to their mental health. 

She said that while the stressors were clearly different given the nature of employment, the existing body of evidence did not indicate the mental health of FIFO employees was any worse than the general population, with some research suggesting the sector might be more resilient.

“Doing FIFO itself is not the direct cause of suicide or mental health conditions. Mental health and wellbeing are complex issues determined by multiple and interacting factors, not just a single issue,” said Roocke.

“Every suicide is a tragic loss and with 366 suicides in Western Australia in 2012, no one disagrees we have a problem in our state. We have an opportunity here to increase awareness and understanding of the complex issue of mental health and suicide prevention.”

She pointed out that mental health and wellbeing was far broader than the number of suicides; varying over time and would be impacted by a range of factors, including quality of family and social supports, financial status, work and external environments and other individual factors.

“This makes responsibility for mental health issues a shared one – for individuals, government, community and industry.”

Roocke said in her submission that the challenge for the inquiry, industry, community and government was to clearly understand what was causal, contributory or coincidental in order to improve the health and wellbeing of not only the employees in the resources sector and their families, but also the broader community of Western Australia.