Depression and casual employment increase the risk of accidents amongstheavy goods vehicle (HGV) drivers according to a new report to be released on 3 September. The report, Health Survey of the New South Wales Transport Industry represents the first time that a study of this kind has examined the mental health of HGV drivers.
The research examined the incidence of drug and alcohol abuse, mental health problems, marital difficulties and long working hours amongst HGV drivers in NSW. The report was commissioned by Australian Rotary Health, conducted by Queensland University and its findings could have major implications for road safety throughout Australia.

BRIEFING DETAILS:
DATE: Tuesday 2 September
START TIME: 10.30am AEST
DURATION: 20 min
VENUE: Online

SPEAKER:

Report Author – Dr Michael Hilton, Queensland Centre for Mental Health Research (QCMHR), University of Queensland.

PRESENTATION:

Full Briefing (WebEx):
View here

Michael Hilton’s Presentation:
View PowerPoint (pdf) | Listen (mp3)

Q & A Session:
Listen (mp3)

*Note – For journalists wanting vision, please contact Heidi Hodder, Media & Communications Officer, Australian Rotary Health on (02) 8837 1900 for more information.

RAPID ROUNDUP:

Feel free to use these quotes in your stories. Any further comments will be posted here. If you would like to speak to an expert, please don’t hesitate to contact us on (08) 8207 7415 or by email.

Professor Tony Jorm is a Professorial Fellow at the ORYGEN Research Centre, University of Melbourne. He is one of Australia’s leading researchers into mental health and mental illness and has a long-standing interest in how research findings can best be applied in clinical and community settings.

“The five times higher accident rate in drivers who are depressed is a great concern. Many of these drivers are not in treatment and they should be. Depression is a very treatable health problem.Assisting them intotreatment has the potential to reduce this high accident rate. Drivers need to be made more aware of the link between depression and accident risk, and the benefits of getting treatment for depression. The reluctance of some depressed drivers to seek help needs addressing. We need to find out why they are not seeking help and try to reduce the barriers to help-seeking.”

Professor Ann Williamson professor of aviation safety and is the ex-Deputy Director of the Injury Risk Management Centre at the University of New South Wales. She has done a lot of research on fatigue health and safety amongst long haul and short haul truck drivers.

“The report provides some really important information about truck driver health and reinforces the well known but little acknowledged fact that long distance truck drivers work significantly longer hours per week and per shift than almost anyone else in the working community. It also reinforces the fact that, as a consequence, drivers’ use of drugs and stimulants has become an essential way of coping with what is a very arduous working life. This confirms the findings of similar work that we have done.

The consequences of such long working hours together with ongoing use of stimulants undoubtedly have important health implications for this group.

I am cautious about the link between mental health and crashes that is made in the report because it is self-reporting. But I do think this aspect is intriguing and should be followed up. One thing that isn’t surprising is that truck drivers are less likely to seek help for health or mental health problems. It’s expected that all they do is work and rest and when you work long hours driving long distances, making appointments to see a GP or counsellor is much more difficult.”

Leonie Young, is CEO of beyondblue: the national depression initiative.

“Symptoms of stress reported by truck drivers may not be depression, however ongoing stress can be a risk factor for depression and it’s important to seek help early. Often people don’t seek help for depression or a related disorder because they’re worried about what others may think and that having depression would be seen as a sign of weakness. beyondblue is committed to working with the transport industry to improve awareness, decrease stigma and build confidence to assist drivers to seek help early.”