Safety Beyond the Jobsite: Suicide Prevention & Mental Health in Construction

"Hope is just as contagious, if not more so. If you can see that Joe got help and Joe's like me, it makes it a lot less daunting to ask for help." — Wendy Farmer

Construction is one of the most safety-driven industries in North America — yet one of the most significant risks facing our workforce often goes unaddressed: suicide. In this episode of Talk the TAUC, host Kirk Westwood sits down with Wendy Farmer and Dr. Sally Spencer-Thomas — clinical psychologist, suicide prevention expert, and founder of United Suicide Survivors International — to discuss suicide prevention and mental health in construction, not as an awareness campaign, but as an implementation strategy. The conversation explores evidence-based prevention strategies, peer-driven approaches that work in trade environments, and how to thoughtfully integrate the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline into company safety systems without stigma or fear. Mental health is not separate from safety culture. It is part of it.

Wendy Farmer is a nationally recognized advocate and strategist in suicide prevention and workforce mental health. She works with industry leaders to translate research into practical, scalable systems that protect workers in high-risk professions. Wendy's focus is on implementation — moving organizations beyond awareness messaging into measurable structural change by integrating crisis response, leadership training, peer engagement, and behavioral health into existing safety operations.

Dr. Sally Spencer-Thomas is a clinical psychologist, internationally recognized suicide prevention expert, and founder of United Suicide Survivors International. With decades of experience advancing evidence-based prevention strategies across workplaces and high-risk industries, she specializes in translating behavioral science into actionable leadership practice — focusing on stigma reduction, upstream prevention models, and building cultures where asking for help is the norm.

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Talk the TAUC podcast is brought to you by The Association of Union Constructors (TAUC). Your host, Kirk Westwood, is Director of Marketing for TAUC. In each episode, we’ll explore the latest labor trends, industry insights, and important issues in the world of construction. Our guests are industry leaders, subject matter experts, and innovative visionaries discussing how we are building the ‘world of tomorrow.’ TAUC is made up of more than 1,800 contractor companies that utilize union labor for their projects, as well as local contractor associations and vendors in the industrial maintenance and construction fields. TAUC’s mission is to act as an advocate for union contractors and enhance cooperation between all parties to achieve the successful completion of construction projects.

Discussion points:

• (00:00) Why the construction industry leads the nation in suicide risk
• (03:36) The "blurry Venn diagram" between construction workers and veterans explained
• (06:41) Why awareness campaigns, posters, and toolbox talks aren't actually moving the needle
• (10:09) How peer-to-peer and crew-based approaches create contagious hope on job sites
• (16:26) Why mental health must be an executive-level conversation, not just an HR checkbox
• (20:27) Understanding the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline and how to use it before a crisis hits
• (26:46) Psychosocial hazards — the work-related root causes driving distress that leaders can actually control
• (33:50) The one mindset shift every construction leader needs: treat mental health like a heart attack