There’s a popular acronym in construction safety circles: STCKY, or S*** That Can Kill You. It’s typically associated with physical risks, such as electrocution, being struck by a heavy object and working at heights or in confined spaces. The industry had 1,075 injury-related fatalities in 2023, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries. But if the industry’s more than 5,000 suicides and more than 17,000 overdose deaths in 2022 are any indication, the most deadly threat in construction isn’t physical, it’s mental health.
At the 2025 AGC Annual Convention, industry leaders peeled back the layers during a handful of education sessions, exposing a crisis that cuts deeper than most safety hazards. What emerged was a clearer picture of the problem and a growing movement toward real, culture-driven solutions.
Granite goes beyond EAPs
One of the most jarring revelations came from Brandon Carlson, safety manager for Granite Construction’s Nevada region. Despite the company’s investment in employee assistance programs, results were underwhelming.
“The reality is, for our folks in the field, where this stuff makes a difference … it does not reach the field,” Carlson said.
And that’s after years of training. Union craft usage? Just 4%. Salaried staff? 16%.
Carlson noted that many construction leaders have admitted that EAPs are often seen as a last resort, or worse, a red flag.
“As soon as you’re calling that EAP number, you’re in HR world,” Carlson said.
So they asked the question most in the room had been avoiding: What if we’ve been tackling this the wrong way? Instead of asking how to fix “mental health,” Carlson and Stephen Dummit of Tradewinds Leadership dug into the root cause, much like an engineer would when investigating a structural failure. What they found was a chain reaction:
Mental health → stress → resilience → connection → communication
In other words, suicide and burnout don’t start on the edge of a roof; they start with how teams do or do not communicate. They rolled out a framework called “Leaders Do MORE.”
- Model – Demonstrate trust, stability, compassion and hope.
- Observe – Know your people’s normal so you can spot what’s not.
- Respond – Use the FAST method:
Find a time, Ask open questions, Shut up and listen, Tee up a follow-up. - Empower – Normalize asking for help; remove the stigma.
One of the most powerful tools was also the simplest: a “check engine light” hard hat sticker. As Carlson explained, crews stop everything when a $500,000 dozer is “throwing codes,” but when people throw a code, it’s a different story.
“What do we do when our peoples’ check engine lights are on? Nothing,” he said. “We don’t do anything. I’ll call the EAP number [or] 988.”
Instead of lectures and HR slides, Granite brought field leaders together in workshops and called it communication training instead of mental health training.
“The example I use is if you’re doing a trenching and shoring training, this is excellent training,” Dummit said. “But it only applies when you’re working in a trench. This [is like] a lot of the approaches to mental health.” But by calling it communication training, it demystified mental health in a way that makes the conversation more accessible.
Carlson shared the story of a seasoned superintendent known for keeping feelings to himself. After one workshop, the superintendent began asking open-ended questions at his daily huddles. Within a week, his crew was more engaged, safer and more productive.
“That’s real world mental health. That’s what makes a difference,” Carlson. “That’s a needle mover in our industry.”
Mascaro’s partnership with Youturn
In a separate session, Rich Jones, founder of Youturn Health and leader of BuildWell Health, gave his take on why traditional behavioral health systems often fail, especially in the construction industry. He criticized the “diagnose and prescribe” model that waits until individuals are in crisis before offering help and noted that stigma prevents most people from seeking mental health or addiction support. Only a small percentage of those in need actually engage with therapy. Jones explained that real change requires shifting from reactive, individualized support models to proactive, community-based solutions that engage everyone and help normalize mental health conversations. He also emphasized addiction as a brain disorder, not a moral failing, using brain scans to illustrate how substance use physically alters the brain’s dopamine systems, further reinforcing the need for compassion and understanding.
With help from Jones, Mascaro Construction took the challenge head-on. In 2023, the company partnered with the Master Builders’ Association of Western Pennsylvania and Youturn Health to roll out construction-specific mental health training for supervisors and leadership. The training covers communication, recovery first aid, suicide prevention and approaching employees in crisis. All training is self-paced and includes knowledge checks to ensure retention. Within 30 days of rollout, three different supervisors encountered real-life situations on-site—one involving an employee, one involving a spouse and one involving a child. In each case, they were equipped to respond thanks to the training.
Mascaro also introduced a wellness committee with HR, safety and even accounting staff, reflecting the belief that financial instability, chronic pain and stress intersect heavily with jobsite performance and overall well-being. They implemented a “Total Wellness” model based on three pillars: physical, social and financial wellness—aiming to keep employees out of crisis before it begins.
The company also created a call line, as opposed to a “crisis line,” available between 9 a.m. and midnight. It’s anonymous and designed to support everyday stressors, not just emergencies. Only 10% of calls involve active crises; the rest deal with job stress, family strain or emotional burnout.
Mental health fitness and helpful apps
During a session about various apps contractors can use to monitor their physical health and mental fitness, attendees had a chance to get a unique perspective on a multibillion-dollar electric vehicle battery plant being built near Columbus, Ohio. Yates Construction, alongside Turner Construction and Kokosing Industrial, is building not just a state-of-the-art LG Energy Solution facility, but a new conversation around mental health and performance in construction. With more than 5,000 workers and staff onsite daily, the sheer scope and pressure of the project is overwhelming.
To explain what workers and leaders are up against, safety professional Rob McKinney introduced the idea of a VUCA environment—a military-born concept that describes modern life and work as Volatile, Uncertain, Complex and Ambiguous.
“Do you know an industry where you’re always working on various tasks, made to feel like you’re underperforming and always late?” McKinney asked.
McKinney, a former safety director who ignored his own stress until it led to a series of panic attacks, is now championing what he calls a “personal protective mindset,” a mental parallel to physical PPE.
Yates site manager Benjamin Crosby is helping lead that change from the frontlines. With so many different company cultures present across the joint venture, attitudes toward mental health range widely. But he says he’s seeing progress thanks to an approach that reframes mental health as mental fitness, a skillset that enhances safety, clarity and performance. One example is strategic rest.
“Napping is still a regular part of my protocol,” Crosby shared. “I will try, on the majority of afternoons, to go out, get in my vehicle, crank the seat back and try to take a 27-minute nap. If I can just calm myself down, I will earn back that 27 minutes the whole afternoon.”
To support these mental fitness efforts, McKinney has curated a toolkit of practical apps and strategies that are simple to use but deeply effective, even in high-pressure field environments:
- Calm – A meditation and focus app with guided content by LeBron James and Jay Shetty, body scans and sleep support.
- Metal – A men-focused mental strength app that delivers daily “mind fuel,” breath work and self-assessments.
- Float – A breathwork trainer that teaches controlled breathing for stress and energy management.
- Welltory – A wellness analytics app that syncs with wearables to track heart rate variability, sleep and stress levels.
- Portal – Immersive soundscapes that simulate outdoor environments to promote calm and clarity indoors.
- Fractals and binaural beats – Visual and audio tools used to calm the mind and refocus attention through rhythmic patterns.
- Journaling – Both digital and handwritten, journaling is encouraged as a way to “get thoughts out of your head and into the light,” as McKinney put it.
Importantly, leaders are modeling the behavior. Crosby openly shares these tools with his team during meetings, encourages conversations about stress and frames all of it through the lens of improving performance.
“We’re not here to burn ourselves out,” he told his crew. “We’re here to get this job done, go home and be better than we came.” The message is that these tools aren’t soft, they’re strategic. And in a VUCA environment, mental clarity isn’t a luxury; it’s a competitive advantage.