Faith Technologies Incorporated talks culture of care for suicide prevention week

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It starts with a check-in every morning before work. “Is something going on at home? Did you have an issue over the weekend?”

That’s one way Menasha-based Faith Technologies Incorporated is opening mental health conversations with its field workers in hopes to help stem the tide of suicides in the construction industry.

Sept. 9-13 is Construction Suicide Prevention Week (CSPW), an effort to raise awareness around suicide in the construction industry, which is higher than average than other industries. For every 100,000 men in construction, 56 died by suicide in 2021, data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention showed.

FTI is one of the Wisconsin contractors sponsoring CSPW this year. But discussing mental health is part of daily operations, said Rocky Rowlett, the vice president of safety at FTI.

“From an events standpoint, we realize you don’t need a month or week to dedicate to mental health. It’s something we do every day,” Rowlett said. As part of CSPW, contractors on Monday participated in a minute-long moment of silence to remember lives that were lost to suicide.

On a job site level, construction supervisors and foremen each morning talk to groups of workers during stretch and flex sessions, Rowlett explained. Supervisors will ask workers how their weekend was and gauge their workers’ moods by color; green, yellow or red. If someone is found in the red, the supervisors ask follow up questions

“Most of the time, as a leader, you’re able to tell if an individual is not normally the way they are,” Rowlett said. If a worker is in the red, a supervisor will pull someone aside to ask if they’re OK.

While supervisors aren’t mental health professionals, they can point workers toward help through company resources. “We can guide them in a direction that will help them, not just as an employee and an individual – it’s about being safer that day physically and mentally,” Rowlett noted.

On the office side, workers go through a similar approach and start meetings with conversations about where their headspace is at, said Alyssa Kwasny, the director of FTI’s wellness program. “It helps us truly understand what our peers are going through so we can understand personally what might be affecting them professionally. It allows our team members to get closer to one another and trust each other, which can be important,” she added.

The contractor also offers “time to recharge,” which is two hours of paid time off available to team members every month, Kwasny said. The time off is outside of paid time off hours and is dedicated for workers to use for self-care, professional help or training.

“When they’re using that time to recharge it is confidential and they don’t need to talk about why or how they’re using it,” Kwasny noted. “But we realize a lot of people are open to sharing that with their leader and team members of how they’re using time off,” she added. Some employees opt in to share their stories, which are used as a bulletin about mental health impacts. Those mental health messages are sent to employees every Monday.

For other companies to boost mental health conversations, leadership will have to buy in and give their support, Kwasny said. A top-down commitment removes stigma around those conversations, she added.

“Communicating the organization’s commitment and following through,” is key, Kwasny said.

“Surveying your employees is important. We do that on an annual basis. And personalize the wants and needs of employees so it’s personalized to them and they get the support they need.”

To continue opportunities to open mental health conversations, FTI prints T-shirts with 988 on them, the suicide, mental health and substance abuse crisis line. This year’s free T-shirt had the message “You Matter 988” printed on it and comes with a matching sticker for hard hats, laptops and water bottles.

“It’s something we campaign on every year and it’s something we do every day,” Rowlett said. “Giving folks the opportunity to discuss this topic and make it part of their culture is going to help them,” he added.