Remote LNG Canada site sees impressive results with heightened focus on mental health

Increased utilization, increased attendance, increased participation and high net promoter scores – these are some of the positive results seen by LNG Canada after its contractor, JGC Fluor, boosted the mental health offerings for workers.

Having these kinds of supports on-site is really valuable, according to Bob Gallant, HSSE manager construction – LNG Canada project, at JGC Fluor.

“The workforce has become much more open, more receptive to understanding that these resources actually add value.”

Mental health challenges at remote location

The LNG Canada site is located near Kitimat, B.C. — 1,400 kms north from Vancouver — and British Columbia has the second largest natural gas reserves in Canada, according to the liquefied natural gas company.

JGC Fluor is the engineering, procurement and construction contractor there, and roughly 4,000 workers are on-site at one time, away from their families for long stretches, working long hours.

It’s a different type of workplace, with workers living in a large camp filled with thousands of people, and yet often feeling alone, says Mary Lu Spagrud, mental wellness coordinator for JGC Fluor at the LNG Canada project.

“[There’s] an innate desire to belong to a community, to have that sense of belonging and we see that lost here… when we have long periods of heavy rain, very low sunlight, we see changes in that; we see a lot of disconnect, lots of pressure.”

And living in a in a camp situation is challenging, she says, with frequent lineups and people struggling with socialization.

“It's a different level of connection… it's a very easy habit to get into is to go to work, stop in the dining room, grab takeout, go back to your room and sit and isolate.”

Plus, most people work on a 14-7 or 20-8 rotation, meaning they work 14 days and then are off for seven, or 20 days and off eight; some may also work for two or three months and then go home for two or three weeks because they come from afar, says Spagrud.

“That adds to some other challenges and difficulties when you’ve been away from home not just for 14 days but two or three months.”

These workers don't have that connection with family and friends, and miss out on things they typically do after work, “whether it's a barbecue or fishing or going out,” says Gallant. “That goes away, or at least changes significantly, when you go to a remote place.”

The stress of the job and the requirement to interact and be part of a team also may not come naturally to some people, he says.

“There can be an unintended result of building small silos, and we try to really guard against that; we want to team build,” says Gallant. “There's a lot of dynamics that perhaps… construction workers haven't really come across before. So that all blends itself into a lot of change.”

There’s also “a dark side,” he says, as people are working far from home, with money in their pockets, which can lead to “exposure or the temptation” to engage in unhealthy habits such as drugs.

Connecting mental health to health and safety, productivity

The Kitimat site has a very good safety record, says Gallant, and was at 180 days without any serious injuries as of mid-July.

“Our ratings, as an industry standard, are world class. And it takes a lot of work but it's important work. So, we'd like to think it's a reasonably well-oiled machine, although we do have speed bumps.”

When it comes to reaching zero incidents on the health and safety front, Gallant says he’s a firm believer that “the next frontier is about culture and mental wellness.”

“It’s really about culture, and how do we work with that behaviour so that you understand, as an individual and as a leader, the impact of an injury and the mindset of working so that no one does get hurt? And that really leads you into culture and mental wellness and behaviour — not just a set of documents that are sitting on a shelf. We know how to do risk management and hazard assessment, we've done those for years, and we’ve done them well and they've gotten better, and technologies get better,” he says.

“But why are [workers] still [getting hurt]? Because they’re people.”

To that end, issues such as mental fatigue and physical fatigue can become more compounded, says Gallant.

“There's just so many different dynamics… it creates, really, an opportunity to do things like look at how we deal with stress and mental health and all those issues. So that's what led us to having this service or this function on site.”

The JGC Fluor Health, Safety, Security and Environmental (HSSE) team decided to take a broader approach, and go beyond tracking and preventing physical safety incidents only, according to Workplace Options.

Weaving mental health into day-to-day operations

Before the “MIND Your Health” project, workers at the remote LNG Canada project site in Kitimat had limited care that largely involved a union EAP program along with on-site posters about crisis lines, says Spagrud.

“Mental health was talked about in general as overall health and wellness but in terms of specific, designated services, programs, education — that didn't occur until our team started here.”

Now, from the moment somebody is hired, mental health is talked about, she says.

“We have wellness packages that we ask our contractors to send out, talking about ‘What are some of the things of being a fly-in, fly-out worker? When you come to the site, what are some of the things that we want you to know? Here's some questions, here's some tips.’”

There’s also a welcome package for family members, says Spagrud, providing information such as a map of the site, the accommodations, and how the travel works.

And at orientation, the company talks about the importance of mental health and wellness, she says.

“We let everybody know the resources that are available, we hand out business cards that have our EAP service on it. They have posters around site, they have cards in their dorm rooms that have all that information.”

Weaving mental health into day-to-day operations

One of the big messages with MIND Your Health is to get people thinking about and talking about their mental health in the same way they do their physical health, says Spagrud, “and recognizing that if our heads aren't in the game, that there's going to be impact.

“There’s going to be an impact on our productivity, there's going to be impact on our quality, there's going to be impact on our safety, and [it’s about] just really trying to weave the whole idea around that mental health stuff into day-to-day operations.”

Another important element is education, and opening up dialogue around mental health, she says.

“The old idea of ‘home is home and work is work and never shall the two interconnect’ is ridiculous… So, how do you start those conversations? How do you recognize if you see somebody struggling? Physically, you would say something, but if you see somebody struggling mentally, what do you do? What do you say?”

They do a lot of work around preventiveness and awareness, says Spagrud.

“We work with supervisors and managers around recognizing when your staff is struggling and not making it bigger than it needs to be. It's not about fixing it, it's not about diagnosing it at that level, but what are some skills that we can give supervisors, managers to recognize when somebody's struggling early — before it gets into a crisis situation, before they may be getting into illness, before they need time off or downtime?”

With MIND Your Health, educational program attendance at the Kitimat site went from 355 people per month to 765 people between the first and third years of the program. And their Net Promoter Scores are now 98% and 99%.

On-site counselling sees 250% increase

One of the more important elements to the program by Workplace Options is on-site counselling. Previously, there were fewer than 20 on-site counselling sessions per 14-day rotation. More than two years later, that number has more than tripled, with counselors serving 50 to 70 workers during that time frame, operating 12 hours per day.

“We assure confidentiality, there's no report that goes back to employers. If somebody is in a crisis situation, we work quite closely with our medical team should we need that,” says Spagrud.

“We do have options for phone and for video counseling, but the majority of our appointments are done face to face — that is our most used service by far.”

There is also a variety of education options, including Mental Health First Aid and a peer support program.

“We have individuals with their own lived experience that we've done additional training with,” she says. “They have a sticker that they wear on their hard hat to identify them so you know there's somebody that you can talk to if you're struggling.”

Mindfulness incorporated into workday at LNG site

LNG Canada also takes a cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) approach to its offerings,” says Spagrud, “empowering people with skill sets to change their thinking, recognizing unhealthy thought patterns.

“We do a lot of resiliency training around stress, mindfulness, all that type of thing, awareness. We sometimes say, ‘If you need something in terms of mental health, ask us, we'll figure out how to best support you.’”

Mindfulness is also incorporated into the 20-20-20 rule which means directing staff on-site to take 20 seconds every 20 minutes to look around 20 metres to see if anything has changed, and if there are safety concerns, she says.

Workers are encouraged to check in with themselves, in terms of taking and breath and gauging how they’re feeling, whether it’s relaxed or frustrated or upset, says Spagrud. It’s about thinking, “What do I need to do about that to get my head back in the game, to stay focused, to stay on task?”

And finally, there’s initiatives around socializing and creating connections, she says, along with support groups for men and women.

The program’s success is tied to the strong connection the program staff made with the workforce, said Mary Ellen Gornick, founding partner of the WPO Consulting Group in a release.

“Offering comprehensive on-site support, prioritizing accessibility and reducing the stigma associated with seeking help make the program relevant to each worker’s personal situation. Being on site, with frequent touchpoints, demonstrates that reaching out for help is a positive step to making your life better.”