A couple of “everyday Joe Blows” from the patch are hoping to push back on the idea that men need to suffer in silence. Kurtis Winda and Tyler Krushen are running a marathon to raise awareness for men’s mental health in the oil and gas industry. “It’s a great industry. It provides a lot for you,” Krushen said. “But you have to be aware of the hard times and know what to do when they appear.” Winda worked in the oil field for 15 years. He said he loves the industry but it can be tough; the hours are long, he said, and you’re isolated far from friends and family. He’s seen those pressures lead a lot of men, including himself, to struggle with mental health and addiction. “They think that they’ve got to hold everything in, and when you’re placed with a bunch of men on one rig or or one job site or whatever, it gets worse,” Winda said. According to a 2021 report, fly-in, fly-out workers in Alberta oilsands had poorer mental health than the general population, reporting more work-related stress, relationship strain and loneliness. Krushen called it a “shock to the system” when he started in the patch 12 years ago as a young man. “I went from being a kid to having to be a man right away,” Krushen said. “It was very demanding and I started to struggle with drugs and alcohol at a young age.” “I was taught to ‘man up,’ just to hold it in,” he added. “There’s that alpha male mentality on site … and sometimes it gets to you.” To help fight that stigma, the two started Run the Patch. The social media account blog serves as a space for men to open up and share their experiences in the oilfield – starting with themselves. “It’s a tough pill to swallow when you put yourself out there, but it’s been pretty cool to have people reach out and thank us for what we’re doing,” Krushen said. “I struggled for years and maybe someone younger doesn’t have to go through that because they can learn from my mistakes.” “It raises awareness that if he’s talking about vulnerable things then there’s no reason why I can’t talk about this sort of stuff,” Winda said. “It’s breaking that view on men having to hold everything in. “And seeing other guys do it, I think, it’s going to open up a lot of doors.” Run the Patch is on Instagram, Facebook and Tiktok. Recently the running partners spoke with former rig hand Ken Kidder who founded counselling clinic Chris’s Place after a friend died by suicide in 2021. “People really pushed it to the f***, fight and trip pipe to the extreme,” Kidder told them in an interview posted Friday. “I did watch a lot of people go down the bad road.” The Run the Patch pals will run the 2027 Calgary Marathon on May 30. While Krushen credits endurance sports and running with helping him change his life for the better, Winda isn’t that pumped for their 42.2 kilometres. “I don’t enjoy running,” Winda said. “I’m excited to watch Curtis suffer,” Krushed added. “But I’m excited to show others that … we’re just your everyday Joe Blows that work in the oil field, and we’re trying to do something special for others and show them that we care and that we want their message to be heard too.” With files from CTV News Edmonton’s Curtis Goodrum
