Saving a Life

September brings us suicide awareness week/month. If you haven’t already heard, construction has the highest rate of suicide above any other work place. Most construction workers live paycheck to paycheck. If you do not work you do not get paid which can quickly lead to being behind on things. Maybe its because wages haven’t increased in many years, as a mater of fact wages have gone backwards for several trades when you factor in PLA’s and wage freezes. Maybe it’s because it’s just hard work with very little breaks and appreciation. Subcontractors are awarded projects with little time to mobilize and that same pressure is passed down to employees. I see more of a disconnect with GC & Subs today than it was many years. Stress is now becoming normalized.

Researchers are still working to fully understand why people in the construction industry die from suicide at a higher rate than any other industry. There are some clear ties to common risk factors like drug and alcohol abuse and high rates of mental health issues.

Today you really don’t see alcohol on projects like you did 20 years ago. I remember my biggest struggle was being 18 years old and not being old enough to purchase beer for my foreman and general foreman?(at my expense). This could have lead to me not working the following day if I wasn’t successful.

Although beer has basically vanished, pills emerged and it’s almost impossible to detect. Before coming out of the field I remember working along side workers who were popping 20 pills a day. 20!!! It’s a pretty scary feeling working next to people like that 500’ in the air with no harness, because that was also frowned upon.

I would also assume since it’s easy to get minor injuries on work sites and because you don’t get paid for staying out you could mask it with Tylenol or something stronger and go to work. Common sense tells you this is a good path towards a serious addiction. There is no doubt that substance abuse plays a roll.

I hadn’t realize the numbers were so large until this year. Its pretty sad. These are people we spend most of our day with. These are dads, moms, brothers, sisters and children to someone.

My partners and I were just discussing this and we felt we needed to do something. Is there anything we can contribute to save even one person. We decided to make our turnstiles a positive destination. It’s the first thing workers see when they come into the job site and the last thing they see when they go home. Our construction turnstiles have always had WELCOME stickers on them to welcome the crew. We are stepping it up with some motivational quotes and a worker help area where we have placed easily scannable QR codes to various help centers. These include Substance Abuse, Mental Help, Suicide Prevention and Domestic Violence.

We are also in the process of?redesigning our turnstile scan ID cards.We want to make names more legible and add nic names to address each other in a more positive way, because there is nothing more sweeter than hearing your own name.

While these may seem like small steps, they are part of a broader commitment to making a change. We believe that every effort counts, and we're dedicated to helping our customers spread this message further. Together, we can save lives.