CONSTRUCTION SAFETY WEEK FOCUSES ON EMPOWERING HEALTHY CONNECTIONS AT WORK

from Winter/Spring 2020

A Conversation with Labor Commissioner MARK BUTLER

Teaming with OSHA to lead Mental Health Campaign May 4-8

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA)

Atlanta West Area Office and AGC Georgia’s Safety Committee are joining forces to develop a campaign to specifically focus on improving awareness and education of mental health issues in the construction industry.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Total Worker Health initiative, addressing worker well-being in a holistic way which “integrates health protection efforts with a broad spectrum of interventions to improve worker health and well-being” beyond the well-known “fatal four” – falls, struck by, electrocution, and caught-in/ between – is what some safety professionals are now considering as “a new frontier in workplace safety.”

“The campaign’s slogan Empowering Healthy Connections at Work was

20% of all men who died by suicide in the U.S. [in 2018] worked in the construction/ extraction industry.

created while listening to a mental health professional highlight several times how important developing human connections, trust, and empowerment among the workers is key for effectively and compassionately addressing this preventable injury,” said Marilyn M. Vélez, M.P.H., Compliance Assistance Specialist, Atlanta West Area Office.

Dr. Sally Spencer-Thomas, an international mental health and suicide prevention speaker and author, reports from a 2018 published CDC study (Peterson, et al, 2018) that 20% of all men who died by suicide in the U.S. worked in the construction/ extraction industry. That would mean an estimated 5,000 men in the industry died by suicide – over nine-times more than all of the fatal four deaths together.

“These are eye opening statistics impossible to ignore by safety professionals of AGC Georgia’s Safety Committee and OSHA,” said Vélez. “A brainstorming meeting was held and a mental health professional was invited to develop a new safety awareness and education campaign to address mental health issues in the workplace.”

AGC Georgia and the Atlanta West Area Office of OSHA will be promoting the Empowering Healthy Connections at Work initiative during the national Construction Safety Week planned for May 4-8. The nationally organized campaign was established to ensure all firms, workers and clients are aware of the paramount importance of safety and the need to educate the industry on best safety practices to keep everyone safe.

While AGC Georgia will be providing planning resources for your firm to get involved in the Empowering Healthy Connections at Work initiative, all contracting firms are also encouraged to visit constructionsafetyweek.com and download planning resources.