On May 20, LivingWorks’ Suicide Prevention Manager of the Southeast region of the United States, Alan Mednick, arrived at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida to discuss building Networks of Safety through LivingWorks suicide prevention skills training programs with around 120 team members.
A month later, a group of 19 team members that work for Bechtel – a worldwide engineering, construction and project management company – were trained in LivingWorks safeTALK. The workshop was delivered by Mednick and LivingWorks’ USA Federal Suicide Prevention Coordinator, Jerry Swanner. This Bechtel team is responsible for the designing, building, testing and commissioning of the Mobile Launcher 2 – a NASA rocket that will deliver astronauts to the moon and mars in the Artemis IV mission and into the future.
“Everyone was thrilled about the training. It sounds like there will be an effort to get safeTALK training throughout the company globally,” says Mednick.
Bechtel is the largest construction company in the United States, and one of the largest privately owned construction companies on the planet. In March, Bechtel committed $7 million dollars to suicide prevention in a partnership with the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention.
Mednick believes the implementation of LivingWorks training will make Bechtel construction sites even safer from suicide. Our training is evidence-based and can be tailored to create a Network of Safety as part of any construction workplace.
“Our programs are vital and proven and it’s really important to get this training out there. This is vital to their work to ensure the mental health of the construction team is looked after,” says Mednick.
Mednick says suicide prevention has been a top priority for several construction companies worldwide. The Chairman and CEO of Bechtel, Brendan Bechtel said in an announcement event that: “It’s our belief that addressing suicide in construction is as vital as wearing a hard hat on site. This is the next frontier in taking care of each other.”
“They work so hard; they’re building something to send people to Mars,” says Mednick. “If you have an injury like a broken arm and needed to take time off, mental health should be treated the same way.”
Ultimately, Mednick believes every company out there needs to look at what is going on internally and to be more aware of employee mental health.
“Talking about suicide and suicide prevention is going to help employees and gives them a knowledge that someone cares about them to implement training like this,” says Mednick.
To learn more about LivingWorks suicide prevention skills training programs for your organization, visit our training webpage.
