Webinar Overview

Mental health in the trucking industry is an important consideration today. This mental health webinar from April 28, 2021, offers insight inside the trucking industry and from the medical community.

Long trips alone, long hours on the road, sleep deprivation, inadequate nutrition, self-medication—they all contribute to the potential for mental health issues such as depression, chronic loneliness, anxiety, and chronic sleep disruption. The most devastating outcome of mental health issues is suicide.

According to Statistic Canada, men represent 97% of truck drivers. They also make up the majority—75%—of the 4,000 completed suicides in Canada each year. That rate is roughly three times higher than the rate of suicide by women. Clearly, we need to talk about mental health from a man’s perspective, and not just about the potential for suicide.

While the statistics presented here are about men, this is a women’s issue, too, because depression and suicide affect families in tragic ways. So it’s important for women to hear this message. We need to work together to remove the stigma associated with mental health issues.

David Henry is a truck driver and host of the podcast Crazy Canuck Truckin’, which regularly addresses mental health. In this mental health webinar, he opens up about the changes in his life, the obstacles he overcame, the help he got, and how he came to understand why it’s important for professional truck drivers to maintain their mental health.

Dr. John Ogrodniczuk, UBC Professor of Psychiatry and founder of the website HeadsUpGuys, which helps men with depression, provides a helpful professional perspective on men’s mental health. He explores depression, what it is, how common it is, and the risks professional drivers face in this mental health webinar. He also talks about where you can find help if you struggle with depression yourself, and how those who don’t face mental health challenges can help those who do.