Workplace Mental Health
On Friday, April 4, 2025, OSHA included information from research compiled and published by an insurance company on work-related injuries in small businesses with 500 or fewer employees. The most reported work-related injury was mental health with 22%, surpassing the traditional number one most reported risk of slips, trips, and falls! The article called mental health issues, like stress and burn-out, the most under-reported and often preventable of all injuries.
Another interesting finding from the research is that while 46% of businesses said they recognize mental health as their “biggest safety risk,” only 52% said they have a system in place for dealing with the mental health of their workers. Why is that? Mental health focuses on how your brain and mental systems function. How different is taking care of your mental health from taking care of any other body part, like your respiratory system or digestive system?
Last year, the American Society of Safety Professionals (ASSP), of which SCM is a member, published an article on Mental Health in the Construction Industry. In this article, a major point made is that the suicide rate in the construction industry is three times more than that of any other industry! Shocking!
While the ASSP article was specific to construction, the five steps to address mental health offered can apply to any industry. Here’s an overview of those steps:
1. Learn about mental health and how you can be more supportive and empathetic. There are many articles and much information offered by reliable sources that you can read online. We encourage you to read articles from organizations such as the CDC, the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI), or Psychology Today.
2. Define the roles and expectations of everyone, particularly the top management in your organization. While safety professionals can recommend, we often must rely on the support of the executives in our company to make the financial decisions to support a holistic safety and health culture. Safety cultures come from the top down.
3. Create a formal program with achievable success and measurable results. As the ASSP article states, look towards positive results by focusing “on achievable, positive outcomes based on measuring work-related stressors such as job satisfaction, financial security and sense of belonging.”
4. Invest in evidence-based initiatives that target specific stressors. Stressors in the construction industry will be much different than the stressors at a chemical plant, or in an accounting office. Talk to your coworkers about what they think is going on. They will know what is causing their stress. As the article recommends, ask the right questions, collect valid data, and then evaluate that data rigorously.
5. Understand how to communicate what your organization is doing. Studies indicate that employees may not be aware of what is available for support, and they also may not trust what the company is doing to help them. Evaluate and learn the approach that will work best for your organization.
There are things that we can do to lessen the pressure and stressors in the workplace. We can prevent some mental health issues, just like encouraging practices and protocols that will improve physical health at work. We take an active part in putting systems into place to keep our workers safe. Let’s include mental health in that initiative!
Weekly Safety Challenge:
How’s your mental health? Could it be better? What about the mental health of your coworkers. Opening up to your coworkers just might encourage them to be more vocal about any stressors or frustrations they might be feeling.
