A Blueprint for Preventing Suicides in Construction
Construction workers die by suicide at four times the rate of the general population, and the industry consistently ranks No. 1 or No. 2 in deaths by suicide among all occupations. Here is a comprehensive guide for construction companies to employ to save lives.
August 31, 2023
Between 2019 and 2021, three employees who worked for Graham Roofing in West Point, Mississippi, died by suicide, leaving their co-workers stunned, emotional, scared and even depressed, although many did not admit it.
None of the men died on the job, but the suicides left the commercial roofing company’s president and co-owner, Christee Holbrook, hyperaware that in the construction industry, “If you stay in business long enough, it will happen to you.”
In fact, men working in construction die by suicide at four times the rate of the general population, and since the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention started comparing suicide rates by industry in 2016, construction has consistently ranked No. 1 or No. 2.
More construction workers die by suicide each year than by falls or electrocutions, or being struck by or caught in objects on the worksite—the Occupational Health and Safety Administration’s “focus four”—combined.
Yet when one of Holbrook’s suicidal employees “started showing signs of mental illness and started just falling apart before our eyes … we didn’t know what it was at the time,” she said. “I thought he was just going through a divorce.”
Although suicide is not a new problem for the construction industry, mental health and safety experts have noted that the field is dominated by male employees, who traditionally have been reluctant to talk about mental health and other problems that can lead to suicide.
Language to Use
Those who encourage employers to talk to their crews about suicide say it’s important to choose the right words. Some examples:
Say died by suicide, not committed suicide. “Committed” is a word that denotes crime or insanity, as in “committed murder” or “was committed to an institution.”
Avoid referring to a suicide attempt as “failed” or “successful.”
Someone who has attempted suicide or thought about it has “lived experience.”
Anyone who has lost a friend or loved one to suicide is a “loss survivor.”
With approximately 5,000 suicides among construction workers reported every year, mental health professionals and some industry executives like Holbrook have begun to embrace the notion that workplaces need to be proactive in preventing mental-health-related deaths among their employees. To do that, those experts advise, construction firms should count suicide and mental health as workplace safety issues and make awareness and prevention as much a part of training and discussions as jobsite hazards like electrocutions and falls.