MENTAL HEALTH
that you don’t have one. With any other safety practice, we’re not
reactive; we don’t wait until somebody dies or is severely injured to
start putting safety practices into place. Just like we take the preventative
approach when it comes to physical safety, we need to
take that preventative approach with mental health, as well.”
She also points out that beyond being a workforce issue, suicide
is a societal issue that can indirectly affect businesses.
“It may not be somebody in your workplace at risk of suicide,
but maybe it’s their kid, spouse or friend,” she said. “By training
our workforce, we can become part of the bigger societal shift in
addressing this. If your employee’s son or daughter, for example,
dies by suicide and they could have helped prevent it, that’s
going to affect their ability to be a productive employee, and it’s
going to increase their risk of suicide.” According to research,
people who lose a loved one to suicide are twice as likely to die by
suicide themselves.
Start talking about it
Talking about suicide can be awkward or uncomfortable at first,
but it’s important for companies to persist in order to normalize
the conversation and begin breaking down the stigma attached to
topics surrounding mental health.
“You become more comfortable the more times you hear something
– it’s less shocking, less frightening,” said Walker.
To begin normalizing the topic in the workplace, include it in as
many different sources as possible.
“Every safety meeting that we have, it’s talked about in some
way or another so that our employees are hearing the message
consistently,” said Walker.
Hang posters, use company newsletters or other internal
communications and have a toolbox talk about suicide and
mental health.
“We mention mental health in our new hire safety training
video, so from the first new hire orientation and onwards,
employees are seeing it,” said Walker. “When we talk about benefits,
we point out the behavioral health care that’s accessible to
normalize using it like you access any other health care.”
Getting employees comfortable about having these conversations
and then educating about warning signs are important first
steps to preventing suicide in the construction industry. Learning
to recognize warning signs will empower employees to step in.
“If somebody is being unsafe or if there’s an unsafe condition
on a job site, employees are empowered, encouraged and even
required to make sure that work stops until that risk is addressed,”
said Walker. “Just like that, they need to be empowered if they think
that somebody is at risk of hurting themselves that they need to
step up and get that person connected with help.”
Company leadership has an integral role to play, as well.
“Having vocal leadership support saying that this is a required
attitude shift is critical,” said Walker. Company leadership needs
to display, through words and actions, that workers can feel safe
asking for support for themselves or for others.
“Make sure they know that they’re not going to get punished
if they need to take a day off to see a counsellor or if they ask for
some accommodation because of a mental health concern or
family crisis situation,” said Walker. “Help them know that support
is there and have policies that are tolerant of that so people
aren’t afraid of losing their job or getting someone else’s job in
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