Does Your Company Need an Internal Mental Health Advocate?

Below is an excerpt from the interview.

AS: We have written at EHS Today for probably the last couple of years about this increasing and alarming rate of suicide in the construction industry. However, it doesn't seem to be improving; the statistics come out every year and not much has improved. Why do you think that is?

SD: I think a lot of it has to do with a lot of the campaigns that I see right now are awareness campaigns. And I think that that's really good, and things start with this idea of awareness. But we need to move from awareness to action.

What can we do about it? What is the proactive way that we can help prevent people from getting into crisis? If we start looking at what companies are doing right now, they're often taking reactive approaches. 

So, for example, when we talk about how do we combat the suicide rate, a go-to for a lot of companies I talk to is, “Well, we have an EAP, we lean heavily into our Employee Assistance Program.” I think that EAPS are great. I'm not going to knock EAPs. However, EAPs only work once a person is in crisis.

What are the steps that we could take proactively to prevent that person from getting into crisis? What is the culture that they have working with their company? What is the experience they have with their team day in and day out?

And what are the tools and practical applications that we can start to effect change there before they get to crisis? Really, that comes down to communication skills. How are we able to communicate what is going on in us as humans, and not just the project or the task at hand, or what needs to be tackled that day?

 AS: In some of the interviews that I've had with people, they are getting a little proactive and they're certifying a number of people on their staff as mental health counselors or contacts. Can you talk a little bit about some of these certifications?

SD: Some of these certifications would include being ASIST certified (Applied Suicide Intervention Skills Training) or being SafeTALK certified (Tell, Ask, Listen, KeepSafe) or mental health first aid certified.

I am all three because I'm passionate about this. And so, if we're talking about mental health first aid, for example, that is a great certification to have, great training for someone in your company who has that training. That really covers mental health on a broad spectrum, from stress to anxiety to panic attacks, to potential PTSD from something that occurred earlier in life. Broad-spectrum mental health. 

Having people in your company that are trained this way is great, and just having that knowledge, and it's even understanding those kinds of tools, and in your company having that language and sharing that, you almost don't have to be a professional when you get in that situation, just don't leave that person alone and have the professional show up. You don't have to do anything. You don't have to fix anything. You don't have to correct anything. Just stay with the person. Just stay with the human. Be a human with them until a professional shows up. And then they can handle the more in-depth things. So those are some kinds of training that really can help drive this rate down.