Ithaca, NY — A new mental health initiative for construction workers is aimed at shifting a traditionally macho industry culture and assuring employees that “It’s Not Weak to Speak.”
That’s the title of the training program within the Building Trades Peer Support Network, a venture recently launched by the Cornell University School of Industrial and Labor Relations and the Building and Construction Trades Council of Greater New York.
The initiative assists workers with destigmatizing the open sharing of mental health concerns and offers training to provide peer support on jobsites. Workers build skills to “listen to troubled co-workers, assess the risk of their mental health and refer them to appropriate support,” a March report published in the Cornell Chronicle states.
Data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows that the construction industry suicide rate is second only to that of the mining, quarrying, and oil and gas extraction industry.
“What Cornell is doing is a form of action,” Chris Scattone, a network instructor who has experienced mental health and substance misuse issues, said in the report. “It’s not another slogan, it’s not another poster, it’s not another helpline to call. It’s an in-person action and I respect it, because it’s saying it’s OK to ask for help, and that’s what they’re providing.”
