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MENTAL HEALTH
we point out the behavioural health care that’s
accessible to normalize using it like you access
any other health care.”
Gett ing employees comfortable about having
these conversations and then educating
about warning signs are important fi rst 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 att itude 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 gett ing someone else’s job
in trouble if they say, ‘Hey, I think that he might
have trouble with drinking or drugs.’”
Just like with any safety culture, leadership
support is required. From there, integrate the
conversation into diff erent workplace elements
so that it becomes normal.
Walker believes that the construction industry
will be able to address suicide prevention in
its workforce due to its already established focus
on safety.
“It’s really one of the beauties of construction,”
she said. “As diffi cult a topic as this is for
many to buy into, those who choose to buy into
it can really do so successfully. Th e culture
in construction has already been for decades
that it is our responsibility to keep our employees
safe, and this is just another aspect to that.”
The Construction
Industry Alliance for
Suicide Prevention
Th e Construction Industry Alliance for Suicide
Prevention (CIASP) was created in 2016 as
an initiative by the Construction Financial
Management Association (CFMA).
“We had been taking steps within CFMA to
address suicide prevention in construction, but
our audience was the CFOs and controllers of
companies, and while that was an important audience,
we knew we needed to get out much more
broadly to the industry,” said Walker. “We formed
CIASP to bring the industry together and get this
information out and get other groups engaging
contractors to help save as many lives as possible.”
Th ere are a host of resources on CIASP’s website
– www.preventconstructionsuicide.com –
for construction companies that want to begin
addressing suicide prevention and other mental
health initiatives in their workplace.
Access printable posters to hang throughout
your workplace to start gett ing people familiar
with the topic and how to talk about it.
Customizable toolbox talks can be used by any
organization and provide a template on how to
frame a safety discussion that revolves around
mental health. CIASP also provides wallet
cards that outline the various warning signs and
include crisis lines so that people can have anytime
access to the information.
“Th ose are three simple, no-cost steps that
companies can take to start gett ing this in front
of their people,” said Walker.
To go further, companies can do a needs
analysis self-assessment using the resources on
www.preventconstructionsuicide.com.
“It just takes companies through asking
themselves some questions – ‘Do we have these
things in place, do we have these conversations,
do we even have the means to have these conversations?’”
said Walker. “It’s not graded or
ranked, it’s just for awareness and then provides
some action steps to take based on responses to
the questions.”
CIASP also provides an integration checklist
to get started and help pinpoint who in an organization
should be involved and what their role
would be.
“It needs to be a whole company eff ort,” said
Walker. “If it’s just the safety person, you’re
missing so many opportunities to get in front
of people and get the message out.”
thinkbigmagazine.ca | Quarter 1 2020 | Think BIG 41
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