Construction Suicide Prevention Week began September 8 with a moment of silence National jobs According to event organizers, according to suicide affected, 400,000 participants represented by more than 650 AEC companies.
The full scope and size of the week’s event will not be held until next month, and the organizers told the companies that the companies have until the end of September to register the participation and to join the related programming that will be included in this year’s data.
However, since its inception in 2019, the week of the prevention of construction suicide has become a continuous conversation on mental health in construction, as the main executives of the industry seek to recruit, retain and strengthen the next generation of workers.
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Sign up here for more information on the week of construction suicide and to participate your company
If you or someone you know is in crisis, call, send a text message to 988 for the suicide lifetime and crisis or send a text to 741741 for the crisis text line.
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“We know that dealing with mental health in construction is not a unique and made effort,” says Bechtel President and Chief Executive Officer Brendan Bechtel, a founding member of the Chief Executive Officer of Industry Suicide Prevention, which gathered an opening meeting in March. Fluor’s leaders, Turner Construction Co., North America’s unions, Kiewit, Clark Construction and Skanska also pledged to collaborate in suicide prevention efforts and mental health defense.
The prevention of suicide “requires constant attention and better tools in the hands of those who need them most,” says Bechtel. For many workers, the use of these tools begins before they move to a job, he adds.
That sounds the alarm in the silent epidemic “
Sometimes, characterized as a “silent epidemic”, suicide rates among construction workers are more than four times higher than the general population according to 2021 data from disease control and prevention centers. Other reports reported that industry 2 of the workers had the second highest suicide rate, behind mining, quarry and oil and gas extraction.
In order to deal with these alarming rates, the lead director of suicide prevention, the Senior Director of Suicide Prevention, says that the more noise the industry can increase, the better it is for the prevention of suicide and the integration of mental health care in safety efforts of labor force.
“Positive development is that there are more tools and resources today to help entrepreneurs address mental well -being,” he says, adding that Jobsitite accommodation land accommodation land, security stalls and initiatives such as Week of Prevention of Suicide to Construction Everyone attracts attention to the problem of the whole industry.
Beyer adds that the “real change” must begin and support at the top, “when first -line managers and supervisors are provided with training on how to recognize signs and symptoms and how to start conversations to support and encourage referrals to help,” he says.
In a statement to ENR, Tricia Thibodeaux, Vice President of Global Health, Security, Environment and Quality. He says the training of the manager has become an angular stone in the aim of creating a culture where “employees feel safe discussing their mental health and asking for help.”
Fluorine managers “are taking training of labor and suicide prevention to help them promote psychologically safe environments,” says “our front-line workers are based on the skills they learn during [Construction] Week of the prevention of suicide and throughout the year, to make mental well -being conversations a routine topic along with other security issues. “”
Thibodeaux adds that collaborations have also played an important role in developing specific solutions in the industry to mental health challenges in forms of training. Access mental well -being resources.
Building a coalition of attention
In addition to a global support observed by more than 32,500 employees, in August Bechtel displayed his Hard hat courage Coalition in collaboration with the CEO Advisory Board and the American Foundation for the Prevention of Suicide. The unidant website includes 12 talks on toolbox, as well as a list of mental health resources and tools for workers.
The tools “ make help at its disposal – long, anywhere -, so that no one in our construction family only has to face a mental health struggle only, ” says Bechtel, with Virginia’s global world contractor last year announcing an investment of $ 7 million for five years for the Foundation “ is another step in making mental health care as a routine and accessible as a hard -working routine ”.
Turner, also a member of the Hard Hat Courage coalition, also committed to a five -year commitment through its non -profit Turner Foundation with an investment of $ 5 million in construction prevention efforts. The firm announced on September 8 that Lyra Health has also introduced as a benefit to mental health for employees and their families to access no costs such as confidential advice, coaching, therapy and stress management tools.
“It is our responsibility to look at each other and to say that no one feels that he is confronted only in the challenges of life.” Says President and CEO of Turner, Peter Davaren
Fighting the blinds of mental health
After his family had been personally affected by the mental health challenges, the CEO of API and President Russell Becker and his wife, Trish, helped establish the welfare factors through the Api Group Specialty Foundation Contracting’s Specialty of Minnesota.
The company launched the fund in June with more $ 1 million to support their 29,000 employees, their children or dependents face unexpected challenges related to mental health or substance abuse. A personal $ 250,000 donation of Becker, which coincided with three members of the API Group Board of Directors, is included in the background.
To date, the company says he has been able to help two teammates and their families, and hopes that they will move forward.
“At the beginning, I did not appreciate it fully [mental health’s] Impact on work, but through my experiences and listening to teammates, I realized the importance of well -being for both people and the whole team, “says Becker.” Now, I try to lead empathy and self -awareness. As I am tracking with other people, I encourage open conversations. “”
Add the nature of the construction industry can make open conversations difficult.
“What makes our industry especially difficult for mental health is a combination of physical risk, job insecurity and a culture where the hardness of vulnerability is sometimes valued,” says Becker. “In my experience, work in shops often affect mental health in front -line roles where physical and emotional demands are higher.”
Face rooted challenges
According to Beyer, it has not been a significant challenge to talking about the use of substances as a means to soothe workplace stressors.
“It has been easier to talk to overdose companies than about the approach of alcohol, recipe and illegal drug use among workers,” he says. The data published last year of a national survey on drug use by the administration of substance abuse and mental health found that 15% of the workers in the North -Americans have a substance abuse disorder compared to 8.9% of the general population. Construiton workers also have twice as likely to suffer from substance abuse as the national average.
According to data from the disease control and prevention centers, opioid abuse and industry addiction show workers with higher mortality rates related to drug overdose deaths and o omioid -related overdose.
“As the data confirmed that there was a crisis, the first adopters jumped to help him approach Naloxona to jobs and jobs,” says Beyer. “This is a great effort to save life and ask the question: why not talk about use of substances? In our industry, we are” fixers; “Once a problem is known, we make measures.
He adds: “We must continue to change towards a prevention mentality to address the roots of the use of substances, decompose stigma and encourage help and recovery.”
