What if a mental health crisis could have been prevented years before it happens? Everyday, work is being done more proactively to ensure worker wellbeing in the construction industry, but even a few years ago, mental health and wellbeing weren’t part of the core jobsite vernacular. “A few years ago, getting mental health onto a construction agenda at all could be a real challenge,” says Stephanie Lemek, founder and CEO of The Wounded Workforce® and member of the Construction Suicide Prevention Week Steering Committee. “Now we’re seeing contractors run stand-downs, train foremen and bring mental health conversations directly to their crews. That’s a meaningful shift.” One force influencing that shift has been Construction Suicide Prevent Week (which runs this week, Sep. 14-18, 2026).
As someone who has witnessed that evolution from reactive to proactive, Lemek has taken her work one step further and joined the CSPW Steering Committee, which has allowed her further insight into why construction is still leading suicide rate statistics. Because meaningful communication helps address those stats, Construction Executive sat down with Lemek to have a conversation regarding questions still plaguing the industry and its workers the most.
What is The Wounded Workforce®?
The Wounded Workforce® helps organizations build psychologically healthier, trauma-informed workplaces, and much of that work is in construction.
The premise is pretty simple: We spend a lot of time asking people to be more resilient, while not always asking whether the environment they’re working in is actually sustainable. I tend to work in the other direction. What can we change about the conditions people are working in so that resilience has something to stand on?
In construction, that work happens through the Center for Construction Mental Health and our Building Resilience Construction Mental Health Certification®, which gives people on the crew a practical foundation in understanding mental health, recognizing what they’re seeing and knowing how to respond. Importantly, we also focus heavily on proactive mental health support, not just responding in moments of crisis.
I’ve spent nearly two decades in HR, across Fortune 500 companies, startups and ENR-ranked contractors, and one thing I’ve learned is that none of this works if we’re asking people to fit themselves into systems that weren’t designed with them in mind. We have to meet people where they actually are.
Why did you join the CSPW Steering Committee?
It’s an honor to be part of the committee and to contribute to the work of building up the people who are building our communities. What drew me to it wasn’t the idea that I had all the answers. I don’t. It was the progress already underway.
A few years ago, getting mental health onto a construction agenda at all could be a real challenge. Now we’re seeing contractors run stand-downs, train foremen and bring mental health conversations directly to their crews. That’s a meaningful shift.
CSPW gives the industry a chance to take something we used to avoid talking about and actually move on it together. I wanted to be part of helping keep that momentum going, alongside people who have been doing this work for much longer than I have.
Why is CSPW limited to one week, and why is it recognized in September?
I absolutely believe we need to support mental health all year. But there is value in having a moment when everyone is paying attention. September is National Suicide Prevention Month, so it gives us an opportunity to connect the work we’re doing in construction to a much bigger national conversation.
And a week is long enough to actually do something. One company can have a stand-down on one job, a toolbox talk on another, office training and conversations across shifts and crews that don’t normally overlap. But the point isn’t really the calendar. It’s what happens because of the calendar. This year’s theme, “Building on Progress,” feels particularly appropriate. CSPW can be the spark. The real work happens during the other 51 weeks.
Why do suicide rates in construction stay high despite awareness, and why are they higher in men?
Because awareness, action and changed conditions are three different things. We’ve gotten much better at talking about mental health. I’m less convinced we’ve gotten equally good at changing the conditions that cause people to struggle in the first place.
Construction concentrates a lot of those risk factors in one place. The workforce is roughly nine in 10 men. The work is physically demanding, which can mean chronic pain and, in some cases, opioid exposure. Project work can be stop-and-start. Travel can pull people away from their families and other sources of support. And there is still a deeply embedded culture around toughness and asking for help.
Construction workers are about seven times more likely to die of an overdose than the average worker, and fewer than 5% report seeing a mental health professional, compared with about 22% of adults overall. For men, some of that conditioning starts long before they ever step onto a jobsite, and the industry has reinforced it. About 56 of every 100,000 men in construction die by suicide, nearly double the rate for working men overall.
So I would actually reframe the question. I don’t think we’re looking at a workforce that simply needs to be more resilient. We’re looking at working conditions and a culture that need to change. That’s difficult to hear, but it’s also where I find hope. If the conditions are contributing to the problem, then they are something we can change.
Are suicide rates in construction more prominent among younger or older workers?
The highest risk is among middle-aged men, particularly white men, according to the CDC. But I don’t want younger workers to get lost in that data. Suicide doesn’t wait until someone reaches mid-career. Apprentices are walking into the same culture, often with less job security and more financial pressure. And I don’t think the solution needs to be completely different depending on someone’s age. We can start setting healthier expectations around mental health, safety, support and asking for help on day one. If we wait until someone has been in the industry for 20 years to introduce those ideas, we’ve waited too long.
What does a psychologically safe jobsite and back office look like, and what can employers do to ensure one?
On a psychologically safe jobsite, someone should be able to say, “I’m not okay,” “I made a mistake,” or “that’s not safe,” without being mocked, punished or written off. Leaders set the tone, but psychological safety isn’t just a management responsibility. It becomes part of how everyone operates on the site. That means asking real questions. It means knowing what to do when someone tells you they’re struggling. And it means making it possible to connect someone with help without making them feel like they’ve just put a target on their back.
I think about safety as having three legs: physical, psychological and financial. When all three are taken seriously, the workplace feels different. The office isn’t really that different. People need manageable workloads, PTO they can actually take, clear expectations and managers who are trained enough to recognize when someone may be struggling.
For employers, I’d start with a few things:
- Change the conditions first, then layer in individual tools.
- Train leaders and supervisors to notice and respond.
- Build mental health into your systems, from onboarding to the EAP to scheduling.
- Meet people where they are.
And I’m a realist. That’s a lot. These changes take time and resources.
So start somewhere.
You don’t have to transform everything overnight. Pick one condition you can improve and improve it. The same things that help people stay well also tend to support retention, productivity and safety. That’s not just a moral argument. It’s an operational one.
What technology is available to aid in worker wellbeing?
Technology is a double-edged sword. The upside is that it can make support much more accessible. Telehealth is a good example. Being able to talk to a counselor from a truck cab or a hotel room can make a lot more sense for a construction worker than trying to get to an appointment across town on a weekday. A lot of EAPs now offer virtual counseling and text-based support, too. Apps focused on things like mood or sleep can also be a reasonable first step for someone who isn’t ready to talk to another person.
But technology can’t solve a culture problem. It can lower the barrier to getting help. It can’t necessarily create the culture that makes someone willing to ask for help in the first place. We still need community. We still need relationships. We still need people looking out for one another.
And I’m particularly cautious about what we don’t yet know about AI and mental health. There is real potential there, but we’ve also seen real harm, especially in the way some tools respond to suicidal thoughts.
What in-person/physical resources are available for workers struggling with mental health?
Some of the most useful resources are also the simplest, and they can be put directly on the jobsite.
Put 988 where people already are. Hard hat stickers, signage by the gang box, even inside the port-a-john. That last one might sound a little funny, but it can also be one of the only places someone gets a few minutes of privacy during the workday.
QR codes can make it easy to get directly to crisis support or an EAP without someone having to walk into an office and ask for help.
Peer support is another big one. Train people on the crew, because the person most likely to notice when something has changed may be the one working next to them every day.
And keep using stand-downs and toolbox talks. This can’t be a once-a-year conversation.
There are also resources outside the jobsite, including peer recovery programs and NAMI support groups. CIASP has toolbox talk materials and a National Resource Guide that can help employers connect people with additional resources.
But honestly, one of the most important resources is still a coworker who knows what to look for and is willing to say, “Hey, I’ve noticed you don’t seem like yourself. How are you doing?”
How can the industry break the stigma around asking for help?
Stigma doesn’t disappear because we put up a poster. It changes when the culture around asking for help changes. When a superintendent can say, “I’ve struggled too, and here’s what helped me,” it gives others permission to be human. Leaders don’t have to share their most private experiences. But they can demonstrate that struggling doesn’t make someone less capable or less valuable. Even saying, “I don’t know,” can be a form of vulnerability.
I also think language matters. We need to treat mental health as a health and safety issue, not a character issue. Asking for help shouldn’t cost someone their standing on the crew. And we have to make the help itself easy and confidential. Ultimately, you don’t change stigma with messaging alone. You change what the culture rewards and what it punishes.
What techniques can be adopted across workplaces and jobsites to ensure worker wellbeing from the start of a job?
This is really at the center of my work: designing the conditions people need in order to be well. That starts at onboarding. Mental health should be introduced on day one, right alongside the safety orientation, so people understand that it’s part of how we work here, not something we only talk about when there’s a crisis. Then you build it into the job.
Realistic schedules and workloads. Financial wellness support. Injury and pain protocols that don’t automatically reach for opioids. Supervisor training, because the person closest to the crew is often the person who will notice a change first. A stand-down at the beginning of a job sets expectations before the pressure builds.
We put fall protection in place before someone falls. I think mental health deserves that same kind of forethought. Mental health is part of all of our lives, just like physical health. Upstream means doing something about it before we’re standing in the middle of a crisis.
How can families support workers off the jobsite, even when they may not relate to the job?
You don’t have to understand the work to support the worker. What families can do is stay connected and pay attention to changes. Maybe someone is pulling away from people. Maybe they’re sleeping much more or much less. Drinking more. Getting angry more easily. Talking about being a burden or sounding hopeless.
When something feels different, ask. And then listen.
Our instinct is often to fix the problem, but sometimes connection matters more than having the right solution. Help them stay connected to the people around them. Help them get rest. Help them take that next step toward professional support if they need it. You don’t have to be their therapist. You just don’t want them carrying it alone.
What resources are available for family members of struggling workers?
Families don’t have to figure this out by themselves.
Start with the EAP. A lot of people don’t realize that EAP services often extend to the household, not just the employee, and may include counseling as well as financial and legal support.
Project BUILT is another resource I would point families toward, and I should disclose that I’m a founding council member. It’s a nonprofit focused on addiction, suicide, and burnout in the trades, including family retreats designed to help construction families reconnect and bring practical tools home.
NAMI has a Family Caregiver HelpLine and family support groups, and the CIASP National Resource Guide is another good starting point for both crisis and ongoing support.
And 988 isn’t only for people who are struggling. If you’re worried about someone you love, you can call, text or chat with 988 yourself.
Families should also look at benefits available through their union or trade association, as well as any industry charitable funds, particularly when childcare or financial strain is part of what’s going on.
Do you see the statistics improving by 2030?
I’m optimistic, but it’s conditional optimism. We’ve made real progress. Mental health is showing up in safety orientations, contracts, leadership training and conversations, in ways that weren’t happening the same way a few years ago.
So I do think there’s momentum. But awareness by itself isn’t going to move the numbers enough. We need to change the conditions people are working in, and we need to do that at scale. Psychological safety should become as standard on a job site as a hard hat.
So yes, I think we can bend the curve by 2030. But only if we keep moving upstream. I don’t want us to simply get better at responding to crises that we could have done more to prevent.
SEE ALSO: RETHINKING THE APPROACH TO SUICIDE PREVENTION IN CONSTRUCTION: WHAT GETS PASSED DOWN FROM LEADERSHIP
