Groups collaborate on construction‑specific suicide prevention initiative

The American Foundation for Suicide Prevention (AFSP), North America’s Building Trades Unions (NABTU), and The Center for Construction Research and Training (CPWR) have expanded their collaboration to scale up the Hard Hat Courage initiative.

The groups are working on suicide prevention standards and using NABTU’s training infrastructure to reach millions of craft professionals across the construction industry.

The goal of the initiative, founded in partnership between AFSP and Bechtel, is to embed mental health and suicide prevention into everyday jobsite practice across the industry.

“While physical safety performance has never been stronger, construction continues to face one of the highest suicide risks of any industry,” according to a news release. “Hard Hat Courage represents a shared commitment to make it safe to talk about mental health—every day, on every jobsite—and to take action early.”

The collaboration aims to:

• Develop core standards, including common criteria and learning objectives, for suicide prevention awareness training and education.
• Explore supplemental standards for peer-based suicide prevention training aligned with jobsite roles.
• Partner with additional industry organizations to expand awareness and adoption across the sector.