The Association of Plumbing & Heating Contractors has announced that this year Quality Plumber Week will aim to raise awareness of what poor mental health is and what can be done to improve and help safeguard the mental health and wellbeing of plumbing and heating contractors.
Quality Plumber Week, which was established by APHC in 2014, will this year run between 7 and 13 October and will aim to shine a spotlight on quality plumbing and heating contractors and provide industry suppliers and manufacturers with the opportunity to show their support.
Speaking about this year’s theme, John Thompson APHC CEO commented: “Plumbing and heating contractors form part of the construction industry in which male site workers are three times more likely to take steps to end their life as compared with males in the general population.
“Whilst there have been mental health campaigns targeted towards the construction industry, the focus of these campaigns have predominately been towards large national employers. Quality Plumber Week aims to target small companies and sole traders within the plumbing and heating industry with specific advice for their working situation as many sole traders and owners of small companies face a wealth of pressure throughout the working day, which for many, continues into the evening as this is the only time they have to deal with the administration aspect of running a company; quotations, payments, VAT, bookkeeping, etc. Dealing with these work pressures inevitably means their work-life balance isn’t always in check which then becomes an additional pressure.”
During Quality Plumber Week, APHC will be working with a national mental health charity to raise awareness of what the symptoms of poor mental health are and to sign-post plumbers to where they can obtain advice and information from through daily social media posts using #QPW19 on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn.
APHC will also be hosting a Twitter conversation on World Mental Health Day on Thursday 10 October 2019 using #QPW19 to encourage plumbers to ask questions and gain live advice.
APHC would like installers and manufacturers to get involved with Quality Plumber Week by joining the conversation at #QPW19 on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn and by using the QPW19 logo as their social media profile image.
Altecnic, Bristan, Heatrae Sadia and Ideal Standard have confirmed their involvement and will be running their own initiatives during the week.
John Thompson concluded: “Hopefully the week will contribute towards improving the positive mental wellbeing of plumbing and heating contractors. Even if it helps just one person this will be a success!”
Details of how the industry can get involved including a downloadable QPW19 logo are available at www.QulaityPlumberWeek.co.uk.
