The Invisible Tools for your Toolbox

September is Suicide Prevention Month. Suicide prevention has become a normalized topic of conversation in the industry over the past several few years, mainly due to the awareness of available data. Over the past 30 years I have seen our industry step up several times and react when data is presented to alert us to a type of crisis. The construction industry has averaged 5,000+ loss of life death by suicides the past two years. That is a 5 to 1 ratio compared to the deaths due to injury or illnesses based on the data available from OSHA. Please don’t take this as if I’m minimizing any losses — all loss of life is tragic. 

My question for you is: “Do you think it’s time to transition to more proactive measures in the mental health area?” If you’ve been working on your plans for Suicide Prevention Month and are not sure what to do, I’m here to help. Here is some vital information to assist you with being more proactive for yourself and those you lead — what I like to call the invisible tools for your toolbox. I suggest using EAP / MAP (Employee Assistance Program / Member Assistance Program) to help maintain yourself as a top performer trade professional.  

 

Know the Risks 

The industry has been fortunate to have several organizations spend a tremendous amount of time and effort making resources available to bring awareness to members of the construction industry about suicide prevention over the past several years (which I’m grateful for). However, most of it (resources and awareness efforts) is limited to being reactive vs. proactive. Please don’t get me wrong — we need awareness as an industry and it’s just now starting to impact the industry a bit (my opinion). I asked earlier, “Do you think it’s time to transition to proactive measures?” My answer is “yes” and that’s what I have been focusing my efforts on for the past several months. Please look at the most common risks of suicide in the construction industry below.  

Most common risks of suicide in the construction industry – (Based on Joiners Theory) 

• Isolation 
• Chronic Pain  
• Extreme Pressure 
• Skills Gaps / Feeling Stuck 
• Lack of Leadership Training 
• Communication 
• Veterans in Workforce 
• Sleep Deprivation  
• Demographics  
• Substance Misuse  
• Financial Instability 
• Access to Lethal Means   

 

I learned about these risks when the Education Committee I lead for the Construction Industry Alliance of Suicide Prevention (CIASP) created an updated deck for presentations they use to support conferences on education processes. I was shocked a bit as I suffered from nine of these risks when I was at the point of planning to take my life by suicide in 2020. I only mention that as a way of being vocal about these risks being real and something many people are suffering from in the industry daily. Side note: I surveyed over 3,000 people for my dissertation paper as a Ph.D. candidate and over 70 percent of the surveyed individuals indicated they currently have / manage more than three of these risks daily.   

 

Go Beyond Awareness 

So, with that, let’s be real about mental health here and agree that we are all humans, we all have challenges in life, and that we work and live in an industry where the minimum expectation for most is excellence. That expectation brings three of the risks alone just working in the industry (my opinion) if not more. We are working in an industry that has cognitive blind spots for human / emotional intelligence because we have limited resources that help manage it or it’s too personal to talk about. After researching data for my dissertation paper, I’m convinced that many people in our industry are in survival mode internally and functionally are working beyond capacity daily hoping for relief or a pause. If you’d like to learn more about that data, please reach out. I mention this type of statement because working in this industry is tough, and many people become complacent as to how it’s impacting them because it became normalized for us. “Keep Pushing” they say — move forward and we will be successful. It never stops and there always will be more to do. Now that I have brought up the risks and I have been real about the environment we work and live in, I’m promoting a proactive approach.  

We are well past needing to build the awareness phase and my hope is that while the 988 campaign has been powerful and helped the industry tremendously, we need to start focusing on helping people before the crisis moment of calling 988. I know some of you are saying — how can you say that about 988?  I recently researched the 988 crisis line. Unfortunately, it doesn’t always work, and some states are not funding it correctly or have reduced funds. Over 2 million calls went unanswered in 2023, and the average call back time was 1.5 hours plus. If you are in crisis — waiting 1.5 hours to talk to someone is not adequate for my plan. We owe our trade professionals better than that. 

The other side of this — if you are trying to help someone that is in crisis, the average time to handoff with a healthcare provider is over five hours. I never thought of that when I took vital cog training. That’s a serious commitment and very emotionally hard on a person. I know as I have been through it a few times and it’s a stressful scenario trying to find professional care for someone in crisis. Feeling comfortable to hand them off and be ok is hard on anyone. Some people can’t handle that type of pressure and my thought is let’s get ahead of putting people in that situation if possible. Calling 911 isn’t the answer as first responders are limited as well. My thought when you look at the risks — We need to be more proactive about using your EAP / MAP (Employee Assistance Program / Member Assistance Program). We need to start normalizing using this resource more in the industry and maintaining ourselves as professionals. It’s the most unused resource out there and a vital tool for our mental toolbox. 

 

Let’s Talk About EAP / MAP 

What does an EAP / MAP do proactively? Let me help you better understand. I recently partnered with an EAP organization to learn more about data and how they work. I was taken back when I heard the data, and it was apparent that this is a great way (using the data) to start normalizing the use of an EAP. I spoke to the lead call-taker about incoming calls they receive and was informed 90 percent of the calls received are focused on substance misuse and mental health needs. Of the calls received for mental health, over 50 percent of those calls relate to work / life crisis. This means they involve family crisis. That’s a large number of people suffering from family crisis in my opinion. What is a family crisis? Anything that is due to spousal needs (counseling), childcare and eldercare consultation, financial services, legal consultation — all things that impact people differently and especially if you travel for work. 

With that, let’s target the 50 percent of intake calls needing family help as a starting point. I operate with the mindset of “control what you can control” and it’s important to recognize many of these family crisis areas are off limits for organizational leadership teams to help people with directly; mainly because we are not healthcare professionals. Based on the risks of suicide in the industry — there are items we can control and some that we need help from professionals to manage. Recognizing the data and understanding our limitations, let’s be proactive about getting family members help through EAP use, which will (my theory) help reduce pressure for the employee, and get the employee acclimated on how to use the EAP if they need to call for themselves. Most people in this industry are creatures of habits and avoid asking others for help or going out of our way to get the info for help. Understanding this — let’s be proactive about getting our team signed up and ready to go with EAP info. Don’t rely on them having the info from their onboarding five years ago.  

My call to action as an industry: 

1. Utilize EAP and MAP resources as a starting point for being proactive vs. reactive. Let this be the new shiny tool in the toolbox for use. 
2. Assess your EAP and verify it has family crisis programs and works.   
3. Build out mental health programs the same as you do SOPs for production. Make it part of the culture we work in daily.  

 

Consider these recommendations before running an EAP / MAP campaign in September: 

Assess your EAP program — many have limitations, and I recommend you try your EAP out to see if it meets your standards. Educate yourself on how it works and if they answer. When I started my research, I was shocked that many of them don’t answer right away and aren’t healthcare professionals when they do answer. They connect you with someone (maybe). I also recommend you give any type of feedback to who manages your program at your company. More often it is someone in Human Resources. (If you would like additional information about EAPs in the event you don’t have one for your organization, please feel free to reach out to me).  

 

Ideas to increase EAP / MAP Sign-Up: 

1. Decals for inside helmets or hard hats with a QR Code / Sign-up info.  
2. Magnets for refrigerators — send them to the employee’s house in the mail.  
3. Have an EAP session on the job — make each person take a picture of the info and favorite it on their phone. Nobody deletes pictures and they will have it on their camera roll.  
4. Follow #3 in employee onboarding. 
5. Leaders for the company — Normalize the conversation of using it for selfcare tactics.  
6. Big Brother stigma — be prepared to get the question: do they tell HR everything I call for? Most programs don’t have a connection at all, and the EAP company has limited connection with HR due to HIPPA laws. The EAP I partnered with has a policy about information sharing and it’s forbidden. Check with your administrator on how yours works. 
    

Let’s Do Our Part 

My hope with this article is to heighten awareness of proactive measures for managing mental health in the construction industry. We are learning rapidly about mental health and suicide prevention, and as an industry this space has been flooded with many people trying to help. It’s amazing to see the response we have; however, it’s mostly been reactive. From a realistic standpoint, we can only control a few of the risks (skills gap, leadership training, ergonomic solutions, and communication). The rest we should get our trade professionals set up to get professional help. If we make it a simple and an impactful solution they will use it — Invisible tools for their toolbox.   

My final challenge: As Leaders… build a culture you would allow your child / loved one to work in with all the best tools available.  

Resources 

Here are a few of the EAP programs that I feel met my standard (which is very high): 

• Our Services | Union EAP (This company serves all trades, including merit shops) 
• Recovery Ways: Drug Rehab & Mental Health in Salt Lake City, UT (They have national resources)  

Additional resources for Suicide Prevention Month campaigns: 

• CIASP Home 
• Construction Suicide Prevention – Home – Construction Suicide Prevention 
• https://www.mission-mindsetus.org
• Josh Rizzo | Speaker on Leadership and Intentional Action 
• www.linkedin.com/in/azbill-justin  
• www.linkedin.com/company/the-tribal-group-llc  

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