Everyone experiences challenges that affect their mental well-being, from financial pressures and family responsibilities to workplace demands and major life changes. While conversations about mental health have become more common, the stigma remains a barrier that prevents many people from seeking help.
Few industries place greater physical, mental and emotional demands on workers than construction. Yet a culture that prizes toughness often discourages individuals from seeking help when they are struggling. This stigma carries a heavy toll, affecting worker well-being, workplace safety and organizational performance. As a result, the construction industry is only beginning to adopt comprehensive suicide postvention programs designed to help workers, families and workplaces recover after a suicide.
Growing recognition of these challenges has prompted construction industry leaders to focus more closely on worker mental health and support systems available to those in need.
“Suicide awareness and the prevalence of prevention and intervention programs have grown, gaps remain between these efforts, limiting their effectiveness in reducing harm and saving lives,” wrote John S. Gaal, EdD, in his article “Postvention in the Construction Industry: Addressing the First 48 Hours” published in the July/August issue of Plans & Trusts.
Recognizing the heightened impact of suicide on construction workers, co-workers and organizations, Gaal, director of the Worker Wellness Program at the Missouri Works Initiative, conducted a multi-phased mixed-methods research pilot project that included surveys, interviews, and a focus group exploring immediate post-incident needs and response gaps following a suicide.
The study examines insights gathered from people with personal and professional experience in suicide prevention, intervention and postvention across five countries, providing an international view of practices in high-risk industries.
Prevention
Most prevention training focuses on building awareness, covering topics such as statistics, methods, risk and protective factors, and warning signs. Gaal noted that organizations like the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention (AFSP), the Center for Suicide Prevention and the Construction Industry Alliance for Suicide Prevention have made meaningful progress in raising awareness across many sectors of society. More recently, September has been recognized globally as Suicide Prevention Awareness Month, prompting a growing number of companies to adopt related training and initiatives. In the construction industry in particular, employers have expanded both in-person and virtual efforts, including stand-downs, lunch-and-learns, and Toolbox Talks.
Intervention
Intervention refers to the actions taken when someone notices warning signs or risk factors in another person. While suicide prevention and suicide intervention are often conflated, they differ in focus. Prevention emphasizes awareness, whereas intervention requires immediate, deliberate action in response to someone in distress. This distinction matters: awareness alone does not help a person in immediate distress; timely, direct engagement does.
Postvention
Often referred to as aftercare, postvention focuses on actions taken after an incident—to support those affected and reduce the risk of further harm, explained Gaal. The research noted that local outreach to suicide survivor teams influenced the timing of support-seeking after an incident. “When peer teams respond quickly and proactively, survivors tend to seek therapeutic assistance in less than two months,” Gaal wrote. “Without outreach, the average delay is about four and a half years.”
Why Postvention Matters
When a suicide occurs within an organization, many workplaces are ill-prepared to respond. “In the absence of a coordinated postvention strategy, responsibility for coping and recovery is often shifted onto individual employees,” said Gaal. Today’s construction environment faces challenges like a transient workforce and out-of-town assignments, which can worsen this situation. Additionally, social and religious stigma may silence those affected, forcing staff to deal with grief and uncertainty on their own. “When employers fail to lead the postvention process, employees are left to speculate what happened,” Gaal wrote. He went on to add, “In many professional settings, an unspoken expectation prevails that ‘the work must go on.’ This mindset can short-circuit the time employees need to process grief and undertake the emotional work that follows a colleague’s death.”
Gaal observes that his study emphasizes the critical importance of the first 48 hours following a suicide, when individuals are often in shock and disbelief, requiring timely, structured support to stabilize themselves and their surroundings, including co-workers, friends and family members.
For Gaal, this study is an initial step toward developing a practical means to address the acute phase of suicide postvention. His future work will include tailored guidebooks and training for rank-and-file field and office workers, as well as a training video hosted on partner platforms to broaden accessibility.
The findings from this pilot study point to three immediate priorities:
- Take action now to address suicide postvention in the construction industry.
- Prioritize the acute phase immediately following an attempt or death.
- Leverage trained peer specialists to fill critical support gaps.
To support these efforts, the International Foundation recently hosted a free webcast panel discussion, “Addressing Suicide Postvention in the Workplace,” in which Gaal participated alongside international subject matter experts. This panel webcast examined how organizations are developing and implementing meaningful postvention programs.
In addition, the International Foundation is also offering the Mental Health in the Workplace Virtual Conference, a free event co-sponsored with the International Society of Certified Employee Benefit Specialists (ISCEBS) and the Wellness Alliance. This conference will share practical strategies and best practices for supporting the total well-being of employees and their families, helping organizations better understand when, where and how to provide meaningful mental health support. Visit www.ifebp.org/mhvc for more information and to register.
