Six companies operated by specialist contractor giant Quanta Services are now using an Australian approach to suicide prevention, called MATES and based on building connections between employees, as part of a pilot project to adapt the program to US workplaces.
MATES in Construction is based on a peer-to-peer approach and its effectiveness has drawn attention in the US over the years, first as a basis for mental health educational materials and more recently. earning an endorsement from the National Electrical Contractors Association.
The US MATES pilot programwhich Quanta started, has been running for several years.
In 2023, Quanta Services approached MATES leaders in Australia to become a partner so that the model could be tested at various union and non-union sites in the US. The pilot will help evaluate and refine MATES to ensure it is optimized for “North America’s fragmented health and construction environment,” according to the program’s website. The aim is to “unite more employers, trade unions and security organizations as partners in our cause”.
The six Quanta units and their base locations are Blattner (Avon, Minn.); Hallen Construction (Plainview, New York); Mears (Rosebush, Mich.); Potelco (Sumner, Wash.); Service Electric (Chattanooga, Tennessee) and Summit Line Construction (Heber City, Utah). All are contributing financially to the program along with Quanta and other partners.
To get started, Washington, DC-based project manager Katie Deal says she listened to workers in the field and hired an advisory group of US industry leaders, unions and mental health professionals. This input is being used to “localize” the program to reflect the regional and company language and cultural norms.
MATES’ approach to relationship building can also be seen as building “capacity,” a term Quanta uses to describe its enterprise-wide security program..
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In the words of Deal, the rRelationships “are really at the heart of a MATES program, and that’s both the relationships between MATES staff, who deliver a program, the relationships they build with the people at the site who participate in the program, and the relationships between the people who work at the site.”
Those people “start to build more awareness and capacity, to look out for themselves, to look out for each other, to notice signs if someone is struggling, whether they’re thinking about suicide, or maybe they’re not necessarily thinking about suicide, but they’re in emotional distress and they may need some support.”
Relationships, awareness and ability open the door to peer support for anyone struggling.
A key part of the program is the initial orientation to MATES principles, after which some company staff are invited to play a more active role as a source of support, called Connectors.
This connector receives training that includes recognizing if a person is struggling or in crisis and, when necessary, matching them with a MATES case manager.
“There is there is usually no shortage of volunteers to go through the next level. of training,” says Deal. “So it’s not putting all the onus on the person struggling to reach out and get help.”
“And what we’ve seen,” he adds, “from research on MATES in Australia and New Zealand, where this program has been around for a long time, is that it provides capacity for the worker. or for the plugin to arrive.”
“COMPANIONS it provides a sustainable system that supports our men and women, not a meeting or training, an ongoing support system,” says Matt Compher, Quanta’s senior vice president of operational performance. “It’s all about taking care of our employees.”
As a reminder, Deal notes that “sSuicide doesn’t discriminate, it can affect anyone in a workplace’ or anyone working in a company.
But, Deal says, “anyone in a workplace can be a part of suicide prevention.”
For more information, visit the MATES North America website.
