Mental health services need to be more accessible to fly-in, fly-out workers to combat a "toughen-up princess" attitude on minesites.

A WA study involving almost 250 FIFO workers and their families suggests half of employees are unaware of what mental health support resources are available to them.



Anthony Ward, who has worked as a counsellor on 13 mining sites across Australia, says there is often a "false bravado" culture which can lead to people hiding concerns.



"Even though there's the bravado, I think underneath there are still the mental health issues.



"I've had people walk into the office and just burst into tears saying 'I'm missing my family'."

A study suggests FIFO workers' families suffer when mental health issues are not addressed.

Mr Ward said workers using the support available to them while on site would help address many problems or issues that come with the isolation of being away from family and friends, especially during holiday times such as Christmas.

A Murdoch University study backs Mr Ward’s calls for more awareness of existing support services, showing a large number of people don’t know about resources run by employers to prevent FIFO-related depression.



Research on the 245 workers and 314 partners, revealed that more than half were not made aware of the support available to them.



Murdoch University's Graeme Ditchburn said that this signified that number of people who needed extra support did not seek help to deal with the stress of the lifestyle.



"Virtually all organisations are providing some support and some guidance, employee assistance programs and so on. So the organisations are providing them, but what is evident is that a lot of participants aren't aware that they are available."