A new video series and educational initiative designed to combat suicide, elevate mental health awareness, and improve access to resources across the construction industry recently launched.

Construction Suicide Prevention Week (CSPW), a non-profit initiative dedicated to addressing the mental health crisis and high suicide rates in the construction industry, and the Hard Hat Courage initiative from the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention (AFSP), collaborated on the effort.

The Crew Builder video series equips construction professionals, managers, and crews with practical skills needed to recognize when a co-worker may be struggling and to safely intervene.

The video series addresses industry pressures such as physical pain, seasonal layoffs, and shiftwork, and provides guidance for managers and colleagues on responding to a mental health crisis or suicide to support grieving workers.

The series also teaches workers to recognize warning signs of a mental health crisis, and provides recommendations on how to start a dialogue, or connect struggling peers to Employee Assistance Programs or immediate support like the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline.

While jobsite safety traditionally focuses on physical hazards like falls, equipment, and personal protective equipment, far more construction workers (over 5,000) die by suicide each year than from jobsite accidents.

“When we talk about safety on the jobsite, mental health must be treated with the same level of seriousness as physical safety,” said Trisha Calabrese, senior vice president of programs at AFSP. “The Crew Builder program gives workers the awareness to recognize when someone might be at risk for suicide and provides them with the resources to help.”