Former Māori All Black and Auckland Blues star Slade McFarland is spearheading a kaupapa aimed at helping construction workers during the lockdown.
“I’ve had my own mental health issues in the past but now it's all about giving back to the community,” he says.
The initiative is called "Moving with MATES" and was created by Mates in construction, a suicide awareness programme that works all year-round, helping workers in the construction industry with their mental health.
“A lot of people are signing in every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday morning, all from different backgrounds. It's really just to get people moving in the morning,” says McFarland.
MATES chief executive Victoria McArthur says that it was important that they establish a programme to help kaimahi during this time that is vastly different from what they are used to.
“This is a very social and physical industry. Our workers can be on sites six days a week and working alongside their mates but, all of a sudden, they have been thrown into a situation at home with no mates around them; a very different environment with its own pressures.”
McFarland says that although the kaupapa is striving, more help is needed on the ground.
“It's about trying to get more field officers on the ground floor with our workers so that we can keep providing those services to create options for them.”