S2 Episode 6: Dr. Sally Spencer Thomas on Mental Health and Suicide Prevention

Welcome to the Construction DEI Talks podcast, where we dive into diversity, equity, and inclusion as they relate to the construction industry. Co-hosts Jorge Quezada, Vice President of Inclusive Diversity at Granite Construction, Stephanie Roldan, Director of Lean Culture at Rosendin, and Aby Combs, Inclusive Diversity Business Partner at Granite Construction, bring new conversations with subject matter experts and discuss how we can make our industry better and stronger. Today, Jorge and Aby speak with guest Dr. Sally Spencer Thomas. Dr. Thomas is a clinical psychologist, mental health advocate, faculty member, researcher and a suicide loss survivor bringing her lived experiences in DE&I to her work. 

To begin, Dr. Thompson shares that she is a psychologist by training who had been in the mental health field for 16 years when her brother died by suicide.  It was finding a community that made her begin to feel more comfortable talking about her grief and creating meaning out of the situation to help others. The DEI space is so focused on gender and ethnicity that it often misses the other diversity dimensions impacting people’s daily lives. 

After Sally’s brother died, she took a closer look at the available data and found many things she had never been trained on as a mental health professional. This data included that the majority of people who die by suicide are male, most of working age, have one attempt that is fatal and have never gone to any type of mental health resource. Once the data from the CDC showed that construction workers were at a higher risk for suicide, addiction and overdose, Sally felt called to do upstream work from this information. Today, she sees a “both and” conversation happening in construction. There are also many toxic elements of the construction industry which contribute to heightened despair and distress. Thus, it isn’t good enough to have ample mental health resources at work. Rather, the entire way employees are treated and the work expected of them has to change. The more risk-taking a role is in construction, the higher the suicide rate is. 

The construction world may be doing a good job at equipping workers with hard hats to protect them in the case of a fall, but there is no consideration being placed on the things our workers may be experiencing or feeling when they come on to the job. The way our workplace interacts with us makes all the difference in whether trauma gets better or worse. WHile there is a huge emphasis placed on equipping a workplace with mental health professionals, it is important to make sure that they are high quality, accessible and culturally responsive. Similarly, self care prioritization makes us happier and healthier.  Workplace Suicide Prevention is a free service with over 2,000 pledge partners who are helping to move things forward. Construction Working Minds is the place to find construction-specific data. 

Sally wraps up the episode with 3 calls to action for listeners: acknowledge the fact that there are human beings in your workplace and have gratitude for their stories, making mental health a health and safety priority in your workplace and do something about it. 

Links: 

Learn more about Construction DEI Talks on LinkedIn, Instagram and Twitter.

Learn more about podcast sponsors Granite Construction and Rosendin

Connect with Dr. Sally Spencer Thomas. 

Learn more about Workplace Suicide Prevention and Construction Working Minds.