Getting help when it’s needed most

Eliminating the stigmas and stereotypes around mental health and drug addiction

By / Michael McConnell

If you ask many contractors how they prevent construction accidents, they’ll probably talk about their extensive training, safety culture, and experienced workforce.

But if you ask those same contractors what they’re doing to prevent employee suicides, they might not have an answer, even though suicide claims almost five times more construction workers annually than job site accidents.

Chris Carlough and Justin Crandol are two people working to change those figures. They have a shared goal of ensuring no signatory sheet metal workers suffer from mental health or drug abuse problems. Carlough is the SMART Member Assistance Program (SMART Map) coordinator. He oversees the union’s efforts to help workers who are or may be struggling with addiction or mental health issues. Crandol is SMACNA’s safety director.

With the support of the jointly funded Sheet Metal Health Institute Trust (SMOHIT) and administrator Aldo Zambetti, Carlough and Crandol have been working for over a decade to increase awareness of the problem. Carlough will lead updated SMART Map workshops across North America this year to educate contractors and their employees about the signs of trouble and how they can help.

It’s a subject that Carlough, a 60-year-old, third-generation sheet metal worker, knows well. For almost 40 years, he’s been in recovery from drug and alcohol addiction. It hasn’t been a smooth journey—Carlough relapsed after 16 years of sobriety—but it’s one that he wants to share with people who may be facing the same struggle.

“I’m in a place right now where I can reach a lot of people,” Carlough says. “It’s a major problem in the construction industry and, really, lots of industries. We have one of the highest rates of substance use disorder, and we have one of the highest rates of suicide. It was just time to start talking about it.”

Crandol agrees. He says SMACNA was one of the founding members of the Construction Industry Alliance for Suicide Prevention, a five-year-old group whose mission is to make the industry suicide-free and remove barriers to getting treatment. Working with other associations, such as the National Electrical Contractors Association (NECA), the Association of Union Constructors (TAUC), and the Mechanical Contractors Association of America (MCAA), SMACNA recently started giving out poker chips and hard hat stickers depicting the new “988” suicide prevention hotline.

“We pushed tens of thousands of those hard hats and stickers all across our chapters throughout the United States,” Crandol says. “They were well-received.”

At SMACNA.org, the association has a page dedicated to mental health and drug abuse resources, including links to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), the National Safety Council (NCS), and the SMOHIT Helpline, which offers 24/7 professional assistance to people in crisis.

“When you call this number, you will connect with some amazing therapists like Jeremy Holburn,” Zambetti says. “He offers a caring voice to help sheet metal workers and their families daily.”

SMACNA also reminds members of the health services available through SMOHIT using newsletters and social media channels, such as LinkedIn and Facebook.

“We want to make resources readily available to build out a mental health culture for a company,” Crandol says. “It’s hard to find someone who hasn’t been touched in some way by mental health or suicide. Anecdotally, if you ask a room full of people if they have been involved with a workplace incident, a couple might raise their hands. Ask who has been in an auto accident and you might get half the room. Ask who has been affected by suicide or mental health, and everyone in the room raises their hand, every time.”

The reasons for the prevalence are readily apparent to anyone familiar with the industry: Long hours, physically demanding work, projects that can take workers away from their families for long spells, and the push to return quickly to work after injury. After three years of a global pandemic that caused many project delays and some layoffs, Carlough says it’s not surprising that more people seem to be struggling.

“I definitely think that the pandemic amped up all of the anxiety, all of the depression, all of the substance abuse,” he says. “‘COVID drinking’ was a thing, and so I do believe that had something to do with it. Now that everybody’s kind of back out and about, we’re still getting a lot of calls.”

Carlough says construction has earned its reputation as an industry where you learn to avoid showing any signs of weakness. “That’s the fabric of our people,” he says. “‘Stop whining. Tough it out. Rub some dirt on it.’ We’re trying to get people to recognize that and to change some of the stigmas around mental health and asking for help.”

SMART and SMOHIT efforts were recognized last spring at the 2022 Construction Working Minds Summit in Denver. The union and trust were given the Mental Health Visionary Award for their longstanding commitment to wellness in the industry with peer-to-peer substance abuse training, employee assistance programs, and suicide prevention initiatives. A three-day mental health training they sponsor teaches how to recognize the signs of substance abuse and mental illness in employees and co-workers, how to help them find treatment, and the best ways to support their recovery.

It’s an essential program, Carlough says, even if some would rather pretend the problem didn’t exist.

“There are those in our industry who would like to say, ‘Well, maybe it’s not that big of a deal,’” Carlough says. “But the more we talk to our members, the more we hear stories of resilience.”

As an example, Carlough says he was approached by someone who attended the suicide prevention training and was able to respond firsthand to a family crisis involving a suicide attempt.

“They let me know that the training we provide—and the absolute belief that we were there with them—provided the comfort and strength they needed to handle that situation,” he says. “I want all of our members to know that they don’t have to be alone when they’re struggling with any life issue.”

Coupled with the two-day local peer training, SMART Map is developing mentors from trusted rank-and-file members who are learning advanced communication techniques and guiding members to local resources.

“It’s inspiring,” Carlough says. “There is nothing more incredible than watching our members stand before their peers and declare their desire to seek out therapy, meditate, or just commit to get more sleep. This is how we kill stigma.”

SMART and SMOHIT are now starting work on other initiatives related to mental health. One central issue is the evaluation of employee assistance programs and treatment centers to ensure they’re meeting members’ needs.

“We want to make sure that they have solid, competent support in mental health,” Carlough says. “It can make a big difference.”

Another is a sleep incentive app study, since sleep quality can have a major impact on mental and physical health. SMOHIT is developing a Sleep Challenge program that will provide motivation to get better sleep and improve overall health. The app will generate a sleep score and allow participants to compete against their friends and colleagues.

“I couldn’t be any prouder of our entire team at SMOHIT,” Zambetti says. “We are making a huge difference in the lives of union sheet metal workers and their families, and there’s so much more to come.” ▪