Editor's Note: The 2025 class of America's Safety Companies will be recognized Tuesday, October 21, during the Safety Leadership Conference 2025 in Glendale, Ariz. More information about the conference, including registration, can be found at www.safetyleadershipconference.com.
Apollo Mechanical
Construction
Kennewick, WA
3,400 Employees | 10 Sites | 48 EHS Professionals
Mental health awareness is a significant component of safety, but it is not always recognized as such.
“We realized that we were losing at least one family member to suicide every year, but it was never officially tracked because it always happened outside of work,” explains Mike Smail, manager of Health and Safety at construction company Apollo Mechanical.
Smail notes the “rate of suicide in construction is five times more than the rate of all fatal work-related injuries, and we were not the exception. We had to take action and came up with the suicide risk factors that we could influence and hopefully make a difference in someone’s life.”
The risk factors the company decided to focus on were:
- Substance abuse
- Sense of purpose
- Financial wellness
- Physical well-being
- Nutrition
- Well-being
- Stress
- Social connection
“We broke each risk factor down into manageable items we could influence and started to implement those through the company,” says Smail. “Little did we realize that through implementing small changes to help prevent suicide, we inadvertently developed our own Total Worker Health program. Items we added were QPR (Question, Train, Refer) protocol, which helps supervisors identify people in crisis and know who to call. It is now taught alongside CPR for all of our supervisors and management.”
Those factors, the most important being social connections, led the company to create the SPACE (Suicide Prevention and Community Engagement) program. “When we started our SPACE program, we realized that building relationships was the most important of all the aspects of our total worker health program," Smail notes. "When people feel like they aren't alone, they are less likely to die by suicide and reach out for help.”
To build that sense of inclusivity and belonging, the company hosts easy-to-produce activities. “We have a BBQ trailer that the EHS team will bring to the job sites for celebration lunches or if morale is down,” says Smail.
The company addresses other risk factors in a variety of ways. Blood pressure stations are available. Meetings can include walking. Financial planning is offered. And nutrition options include fresh food instead of vending machines.
“For the last five years, Apollo has been breaking down barriers and leading the way by addressing mental health in the workplace,” says Smail.” We continue to build on the knowledge we've learned and have no plans on stopping.”
