We talk about mental health more than ever and yet, more people are struggling to get support. The problem isn't awareness. Awareness opened the door. The problem is what comes next: the human infrastructure that turns concern into action, and good intentions into real pathways to care.
The 6th Annual Construction Mental Health and Wellbeing Conference is coming to Chicago, February 22–25, 2027 — and sponsorship opportunities are now open. Google, major GCs, unions, and lived-experience advocates have all shown up. The people leading this movement will be in the room. Will your organization be there with them?
Poor mental health is already costing your organization in absenteeism, turnover, and safety incidents. The good news: every $1 invested returns $4, and up to $6 when you act early. Dr. Sally Spencer-Thomas lays out the three-level workplace strategy that turns mental health from a line item into a business investment.
At the 2026 American Association of Suicidology conference, I felt the field shift. Beyond risk detection and safety plans, she sensed a hunger for healing — recovery-oriented care, belonging, and "muscular hope." From workplace prevention to solidarity across difference, this is suicide prevention moving from death prevention toward life reclamation.
Research confirms that supervisor behavior is a stronger driver of worker mental health than access to care itself. In construction, where pressure is relentless and stigma runs deep, the person running the crew can either open a door to help or silently close it. Here's how to get it right.
When we consider a comprehensive strategy to suicide prevention and mental health promotion, it’s helpful to segment approaches into “upstream” (preventing problems before they emerge through self-help), “midstream” (catching emerging problems early and linking people to least restrictive support), and “downstream” (helping people with more serious mental health challenges and suicidal thoughts) tactics.
Thus, for this article, I have organized some of the most popular, best researched and most innovative apps into these three categories.
The stoicism of farmers helps them power through hardship and harsh environmental conditions often in great isolation, but when it comes to their mental health, this power through approach can be life threatening. It’s not surprising then that “farming, fishing and forestry” is the industry with the highest suicide rates (McIntosh et al, 2016)...
Firefighters are a unique breed. They run into burning buildings when everyone else is trying to escape. They respond to gruesome medical calls. And they do it all as a team. There’s a brother/sisterhood that comes with being part of this elite crew, and while there are many positive things that result from that connection, it can also create a tough guy mentality that leads them to believe they can’t or shouldn’t seek outside help when they’re struggling. As one firefighter told me, “We literally depend on each other’s lives to be mentally sound. It is our strength to compartmentalize, stay decisive, and move on that is valued in this work.”
When sexual trauma happens in the military, feelings of betrayal often emerge because the expectation is that those who serve alongside you are meant to protect, not harm you. The effects of this broken trust can be devastating. Given the social nature of the military and the likelihood that a victim of MST would have to continue to work or live near their assailant, the environment alone may create conditions for prolonged exposure, leaving an impact like that of on-going family violence...
Question: Is our hyper-focus on “safe messaging” getting in the way of “effective messaging”?...
For years, suicide prevention advocates have focused on “safe messaging,” a series of do’s and don’ts that emphasize help-seeking and discourage mentioning suicide details. The goal of these suggestions is to avoid triggering vulnerable people to over-identify with suicide as a way to escape their emotional pain. Many of these tips – like don’t glamorize or romanticize suicide --are beneficial, and we certainly don’t want our content to cause harm. But I and many others are starting to recognize that a single-minded focus on "safe messaging" may be getting in the way of us being effective in our communication....
"...When people become marginalized for whatever reason, they are often told that their experiences do not matter. Advocacy allows those who have suffered to publicly state, “This is who I am, this is how the dreams of mine and others like me have been systematically destroyed.”
Advocates can also paint a vision by saying, “This is how I see that change is possible.”
What do suicide prevention advocates do? Organized empowerment..."
...One example of a “caring for others” profession is veterinary medicine and animal welfare. Animal rescue professionals and veterinarians fit Thomas Joiner’s model of why people die by suicide: Constant exposure to death and feelings of hopelessness lead to an acquired ability for lethal self-injury, and they have access to lethal means in the form of drugs.
People are often drawn to the demanding professions because of their love of animals, but they soon discover that a large part of the job involves ending the lives of beloved pets and otherwise health animals. In fact, vets come face-to-face with death at five times the rate of physicians. Both veterinarians and animal rescue professionals are witness to the agonizing situation of pet owners choosing to have their companions euthanized because treatment is too expensive or too difficult or because breeding was uncontrolled and the family has become overwhelmed....
On February 27th, I resigned from a company I co-founded. A company named in honor of my brother who died of suicide. It was one of the biggest decisions in my life....
