Mental Health Toolbox Talk
There is no regulation behind this talk. It is here because more people in this trade die of this than of falls, and nobody reads that out on a Monday morning.
Print this talk with the sign in lines on it
One page to read from, with space for the job, the date, who led it and twelve signatures. Print it, read it, get it signed, file it.
Free, no signup, no email, no watermark.
The talk, read this out
Nobody has to say anything in this one. Just listen, and if one number lands wrong with you, stay behind for a minute afterwards and we will talk about it then, not now, and not in front of everybody.
CDC published suicide rates by occupation for 2021. For working men across every occupation in the country the rate was 32.0 per hundred thousand. For men in construction and extraction it was 65.6. That is not a bit higher. It is double.
It is not only the men. Construction laborers was one of the five highest rates of any detailed occupation for women, at 38.6, against 8.0 for working women overall.
Nobody knows exactly why and the honest list is long: the work is seasonal and the money is not steady, the injuries turn into painkillers, the drink after the shift is part of the job, you move from site to site and never keep a crew, and this is a trade where saying you are struggling is heard as saying you cannot do the work.
That last one is the part we can actually change today. Nothing here is going to fix anybody's money or anybody's back. What this crew can do is stop treating it as the one thing that cannot be said out loud.
The warning signs are not dramatic. Somebody who was always here starts being late. Somebody who never drank at lunch does. Somebody stops taking the mickey. Somebody gives away a tool they have had for twenty years. Somebody who talks about being a burden, even as a joke.
And what you say is smaller than you think. Not a speech. You look off. Are you all right, properly? And then the hard bit, which is to stay quiet and let it be uncomfortable for ten seconds instead of filling it. Most people have never been asked twice in their life.
If it is worse than that, asking somebody directly whether they are thinking about killing themselves does not put the idea in their head. That is the thing everybody is afraid of and it is not true. Asking straight is what gives them permission to say yes.
The number is 988, from any phone in the US. You can call it, text it, or chat online, any hour of any day, free and confidential, and it is not only for the worst moment. You can call it about somebody else. You can call it on the way home about a conversation you had on this site and did not know what to do with.
Point at these before anybody starts
A talk delivered in a trailer is a meeting. Stand where the work is and put a hand on each of these.
- The number 988, said out loud by everybody here so it is in the room.
- Anybody on this crew nobody has seen properly in a fortnight.
- Whether this company has an employee assistance program, and whether anybody knows the number.
- The person on this crew who always asks how everybody is, and who asks them.
- What time this crew actually finishes, and whether anybody here is doing seven days.
- Where somebody could have a conversation on this site without eight people hearing it.
The rules that apply
- 988 is the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline. Call, text or chat, 24 hours a day, every day, free and confidential, and available in Spanish.
- 988 is not only for a crisis. It takes calls from people worried about somebody else.
- Asking somebody directly whether they are thinking about suicide does not increase the risk. It lowers the barrier to them saying yes.
- Never agree to keep it secret. Anybody who tells you they are in danger needs one more person to know, and you can tell them that before they answer.
- If somebody is in immediate danger they do not get left alone, and that is a 911 call, not a lift home.
- There is no OSHA standard behind any of this. It is a company rule and it holds on this site because this company says so.
Ask the crew
Three questions, answered out loud by name. This is the part that tells you whether anybody was listening.
- What is the number, and has everybody here got it in their phone now?
- Who would you ring at ten at night, and would you actually do it?
- Name one person on this crew you have not spoken to properly in a month.
Close with this
Twice the rate of every other trade and nobody talks about it. That is the bit we can change by the end of this shift.
A talk nobody signed for is a talk that, as far as anybody can later prove, never happened. Use the free toolbox meeting sign in sheet in PDF, Word or Excel, or print the PDF above, which already has the signature lines on it.
Questions people ask
Where do these numbers come from?
CDC, Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report 72(50), suicide rates by industry and occupation from the National Vital Statistics System for 2021. Construction and Extraction was 65.6 per 100,000 for males and 25.3 for females, against 32.0 and 8.0 for the whole working population.
Is asking somebody about suicide dangerous?
No. This is the most common reason people say nothing, and the evidence does not support it. Asking directly does not plant the idea. It usually comes as a relief, because the person has been carrying it alone and has no way to raise it first.
What if somebody tells me and asks me not to tell anyone?
Do not agree to it, and say so before they start if you can see it coming. You can keep it away from the whole crew, but somebody who can actually help has to know, and that is not a betrayal, it is the only useful thing you can do with what you have been told.
More toolbox talks
TOOLBOX TALK: MENTAL HEALTH
Attendance
Everybody who was present signs, including subcontractors and anybody visiting the site.