MENTAL HEALTH
“If you think that you don’t
have a problem with suicide or
mental health in your workplace,
you’re probably wrong – you
just don’t know about it.”
– Michelle Walker, Construction Industry
Alliance for Suicide Prevention
Construction sites can be highrisk
working environments;
potentially hazardous conditions
are often everyday job components.
According to the Occupational Safety &
Health Administration (OSHA), there are
four top causes of construction-related
fatalities: falls, struck-by, caught-in/
between and electrocutions.
However, a hidden danger has been taking
the lives of construction workers across
the country at even greater rates than the
top causes identified by OSHA.
“There are five times as many workers
who die by suicide than by physical job
site fatalities each year,” said Michelle
Walker, chair of the Construction
Industry Alliance for Suicide Prevention
and CFO at SSC Underground in Arizona.
The Centers for Disease Control (CDC)
released a report in 2018 concluding that
more construction workers die by suicide
each year than any other industry.
Outside of an industry lens, says Walker,
the construction industry suicide rate is
four times that of the general population.
“There’s definitely a distinct need in the
construction industry to focus on suicide
prevention,” said Walker. “The effort we put
into job site safety and preventative factors
needs to also be put into emotional factors
and mental wellbeing. We need to implement
the safety 24/7 approach – making it
as important that our workers get back to
work in the morning as it is important that
they go home at the end of each shift.”
According to the Mayo Clinic, many people
with mental illnesses are unaware that
their thoughts or behavior are atypical and
consider their signs or symptoms a normal
part of life. This makes it especially critical
that workplaces be better equipped to recognize
and discuss mental health issues to
keep employees safe.
“People spend more time at work than
they do outside of work; we have a definite
role in recognizing symptoms of mental
illness or suicide risk factors,” said Walker.
“If somebody is dealing with a severe mental
illness or is at risk of suicide, they’re at
a place of despair. Their mind is not going
to be on the job and they’re not going to
be safe for themselves or others on the
work site. It’s in everybody’s best interest
to help them.”
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104 | ISSUE 1 2020 www.piledrivers.org