PERSPECTIVE: Please Comment on Need for Mental Health Training in Apprentice Programs
Date Posted: March 7, 2024
Posted In: Discussion, Ideas, Workforce,
by Tom Finan, Executive Director, Construction Forum
Earlier this week, we wrote an article quoting Brandon Anderson, vice president of AGCMO on the need for more proactive action in the area of mental health for our construction team members.
There’s a tremendous amount of momentum behind the movement of bringing awareness to the industry. We lose over 6,000 workers a year to suicide alone… A large movement of awareness is not enough. We need real, tangible actions,” Anderson said.
There is something that you can do that will take one minute which could make an enormous difference. It was suggested to me by close friend Doctor John Gaal, director of worker wellness for the Missouri Works Initiative of the AFL-CIO. John pointed out that there is no provision for mental wellness training in the proposed new U.S. Department of Labor standards for registered apprenticeship programs.
John and I are asking that you take a minute to submit a comment to DOL. The deadline for comments is Monday, March 18th. We’re making it easy for you. Just click this link which will take you to the official government comment suite and then click the “comment” button. Editor’s Note: Please do NOT click the comment button at the bottom of this article. That link sends comments to Construction Forum. The intent is to send comments to the U.S. Department of Labor.
In a nutshell, John and I are requesting that you ask the DOL to include a requirement that every apprentice receive at least one hour of instruction on dealing with stresses of the job and information about help that is available if they find themselves in a mentally stressful or dangerous place.
A sample comment would be:
“I am a representative of the construction industry, which makes extensive use of registered apprentice programs. While great progress has been made in apprentice training to protect the physical health and safety of workers, that has not been the case with mental health. Our industry is still at or near the top in reported instances of worker mental health issues, substance abuse, and suicides. I respectfully request that all registered apprentice programs provide at least one hour of mental health training focused on managing job stresses and resources related to mental health.”
John noted, “For the past 20 years, I have been working with researchers across the USA on worker safety issues. When we began, our focus was entirely on the physical aspects of safety (i.e., slips, trips, falls, etc.). However, when the worldwide economic crisis hit in 2007, before long it became evident that we needed to cast a wider net to include the mental aspects of safety. Back then, little did I know that this concept already had a name in the field of Public Health: Total Worker Health (TWH).
“In essence, both labor and management have a duty to ensure that workers are protected physically from injury and illness as well as mentally by advancing their well-being. I cannot think of a joint apprenticeship and training committee that has not required first aid, CPR/AED, and OSHA-10 in the past 20 years. Isn’t it time we insist that mental health deserves a rightful seat at the registered apprentice program training table?”
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