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The ABC Cares Foundation has created a mobile application designed to meet the mental health challenges that construction workers have.
Associated Florida East Coast BUILDERS and contractor arm chapter on Monday launched the application in a collaboration with West Palm Beach, with an outpatient base of the Outpatient Health Specialty Group, for a launch shared with the immersion of construction. .
The ABC Cares Foundation, based in Miami, said that the HIPAA compatible application will provide the workers with fast and confidential access to the mental health services. Participating construction companies will show QR codes to their jobs, which workers can scan to connect with licensed mental health suppliers to obtain support.
There is a nominal quota for companies that sign up for the program, said Sonny Maken, CEO of ABC Florida East Coast. The application is designed for individual insurance workers, but ABC Cares has obtained low rates for ungrateful workers to ensure accessibility of care, Maken said.
When scan, workers can schedule face -to -face appointments within 48 hours. These appointments could include therapy, case management, psychiatric care and addiction advice.
The application is designed to address the mental health crisis in the industry. It Suicidal mortality rate for construction The workers were 2.4 times higher than all industries (46.1 against 19.5 per 100,000 full -time employees) in 2022, the most recent data set. There were five times more suicide in construction than the fatalities of the workplace that year.
“These statistics are unacceptable,” said Peter Dyga, CEO of the ABC Cares Foundation, in the statement. “This collaboration is about action: to make mental health care more accessible, which demonstrates our commitment to the safety and well -being of the individuals who build our communities.”
Factors contributing to the risk of construction suicide include pressure to work quickly with few errors, a man -dominated labor population that creates a “hard” mentality, alcohol and drug use, a bad access to Health care, job instability or uncertainty, and high rates that lead to chronic pain.
However, the industry has shine a light on the matter in recent years. In October, leaders of Bechtel, Fluor, Turner, America North’s Building Trades Sindions, Kiewit, Clark, DPR, Skanska and Stanley Black & Decker United to form an advisory board to guide an effort throughout the industry To reduce the high construction suicide rate among workers.
That ad came after Bechtel pledged to $ 7 million At the American Foundation for the Prevention of Suicide in March, the largest donation to the non -profit person at that time.
