“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.”
– Michelle Walker, Construction Industry Alliance for Suicide Prevention
“It’s really one of the beauties of construction,” she said.
“As difficult a topic as this is for many to buy into, those who
choose to buy into it can really do so successfully. The cul-ture
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
The 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 sui-cide
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.”
There 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 work-place
to start getting 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.
“Those are three simple, no-cost steps that companies can
take to start getting this in front of their people,” said Walker.
To go further, companies can do a needs anal-ysis
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
MENTA L H E A LT H
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 effort,” said Walker. “If
it’s just the safety person, you’re missing so many opportu-nities
to get in front of people and get the message out.” n
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