Opinion: It’s time to address mental health, suicide in heavy industry

For men working in fishing, mining and excavation, and construction — three essential industries that keep food on our table, provide essential materials and create our roadways, and give us the structures where we work, live, and play — the risks are immense and they don’t end when the shift ends or the boat comes to shore.

Our organization, a human services agency with deep experience in preventing suicide, closely studied these industries, including interviewing many men working in these professions, and we learned both why they are drawn to these professions and why the jobs are so perilous to their mental health. Women play pivotal roles in these industries but they are not affected in the same way as men.

Consider the numbers. Suicide rates in construction are four times the national average; commercial fishing has a fatality rate 40 times higher than average; and mining is considered one of the top five occupations at highest risk for suicide. 

We learned through our research that men working in these fields experience extraordinary stress. Often, it is the punishing deadlines to deliver projects on time and on budget. In construction, unrealistic deadlines are often promised by higher-ups, causing crews to have to work faster to keep up, even as they deal with inclement weather and other factors out of their control. Fishermen feel the financial pinch of rising fuel prices and the cost of boat maintenance, while adhering to strict limits in what they can catch.

Even as the work requires considerable skills, strength, and commitment, jobs in these industries are stigmatized by the public. The men told stories of not being allowed to walk through lobbies and public places. 

It is compounded, in all cases, by time away from the family. Men in construction and mining/excavation often must be away from home when working at remote job sites. Fishermen are at sea for long stretches. Even if not working far away from home, the schedules mean that these workers often miss key family moments. 

Trauma pervades all three industries. Serious illness and death are a fact of life. The fishing community is particularly tight knit. The rapidly changing weather at sea has led to tragic outcomes, as it did twice in recent months, with the loss of the Lily Jean of Gloucester, and the sinking of the Yankee Rose off the coast of Provincetown. A total of eight lives were tragically lost. Several of the men interviewed spoke of how the grief from such loss never goes away and can lead to substance use. At the same time, men reported a lack of resources to help them manage the grief.

The three heavy industries all come with an expectation that you must “tough it out,” no matter the challenges you might be facing personally.

More must be done to support all men working in heavy industry. When workers do better, business does better. Three key recommendations from the report illuminate the pathway to doing so.

First, peer support training, which includes mental health literacy and suicide prevention training, is essential and employers in these industries must invest in it. Through comprehensive training, men in these professions struggling from depression and substance use disorder could easily turn to a peer for help.

Second, these industries must bolster onsite employee assistance and mental health resources, and in the case of fishing, these resources should be provided at the community level since it likely is not feasible to put them on boats. Many construction and mining/excavation sites lack such resources and employees can’t take the time off from work to travel to a clinic or a therapist’s office. The resource needs to be brought to the workers.

Third, these industries must embrace and provide postvention services, so that after a critical incident or loss, including suicide, workers are given the support and space to process such incidents. Far too often, a “back to work” mentality pervades, which can lead to Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder and other conditions.

Men in these high-risk industries power our economy. It is vital that we not overlook their critical mental health needs.

Vic DiGravio is the president and CEO of Riverside Community Care in Dedham, Mass.