Sydney mother turns personal tragedy into mental-health advocacy for heavy-industry workers

Maggie Pearce, a Sydney mother, lost her 21-year-old son Ben to suicide in 2018 after he battled drinking problems. Determined to prevent other families from facing the same loss, she started leading mental-health discussions among staff at the transport depot she oversees. In addition, she volunteers as a connector for MATES, an organization that provides suicide-prevention support to heavy-industry workplaces such as construction, mining, energy and manufacturing.

Statistics from the Australian Bureau of Statistics reveal that 1,383 men employed as technicians or tradespeople died by suicide in 2023-24, representing 27.6% of male suicides, the highest occupational share. MATES’ CEO Brad Parker points to long shifts, remote living, job insecurity and a culture of heavy alcohol use as contributing factors. The charity, founded in 2007, now has about 37,000 volunteers reaching roughly 330,000 workers, and its model was cited by the World Health Organization in 2021. Pearce urges governments to fund comparable support networks for small businesses, where such resources are often unavailable.