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ORLANDO, Fla. — Workplace safety experts have long been focused not just on workers’ physical wellbeing but their mental health as well. That rang true at the American Society of Safety Professionals 2025 Expo and Conference in July.
“It definitely is [our responsibility],” said Wesley Wheeler, executive director of safety for the National Electric Contractors Association. “We are the eyes and ears of our contractors.”
Wheeler’s comments came during a panel discussion, but it was far from the only event at the conference where worker mental health was brought up.
Panelists also discussed the need to remove the “macho” stigma in industries like construction that can negatively impact men in particular and how to spot the warning signs of someone struggling with mental health issues.
Those indicators include workers who don’t regularly maintain their hygiene, have a sudden rapid drop in productivity or increasingly keep to themselves when they may have otherwise been social.
“You will notice these things if you are in tune with your workers,” said Georgia Bryce-Hutchinson, mental health consultant for Exton, Pennsylvania-based healthcare provider Carebridge.
Construction’s long hours, demanding physical labor and tough-guy mentality can contribute to mental health issues, said Chris Trahan Cain, executive director of Silver Spring, Maryland-based CPWR — The Center for Construction Research and Training.
“A growing number of deaths are not from falls or electrocutions. They’re from suicide on the job or drug overdose on the job,” Cain said.
Conference organizers handed out ASSP poker chips with 988 on the back — the national suicide hotline number — before and after the panel. Wheeler said that the poker chip can be used as a tool in a personal or group setting to open pathways to conversation around mental health.
Cain suggested that a safety manager give a chip to a worker they are concerned about with no further discussion, highlighting the option for a subtle nudge rather than an immediate discussion, which might not be comfortable.
Language, literally
At another presentation, two speakers stressed the importance of language as a factor in worker mental health and suicide prevention.
Sonya Bohmann, executive director of the Frankfort, Illinois-based Construction Industry Alliance for Suicide Prevention and Loretta Mulberry, a Spanish-to-English interpreter and industry advocate, discussed the import