Shannon Truax-Wardell led a program that put a suicide crisis line on the side of ready-mix drums and drove it through every community her company works in. It won a national award, and a stranger in crisis called the number and later called back to say thank you. In this episode, sponsored by Grand Valley Construction Association and Mark’s Commercial, she walks Angelo through what came after the campaign: crisis response and mental health first aid training built into an operating company since 2021, who volunteered and why, where the legal line sits, and what to say to the executive who wants the ROI first. Angelo shares the story of the manager who asked him the same question five days running until he broke down at his desk. The through line is simple. We train every crew in first aid for the body and almost none of them for the mind, and that is a training gap, not a values problem.
Key topics covered
• How the ready-mix drum crisis line campaign came together in January 2021, and why the drivers were trained before a single truck went out
• Crisis response versus mental health first aid: what each one covers and how long each takes
• Why operational leaders, not just safety and HR, are the right people to train
• Keeping the program voluntary, and why some volunteers backing out was the right outcome
• The legal line between offering a safe place to speak and treating someone
• Language that matters: died by suicide, not committed suicide
• The 80 percent in the middle who want to help and freeze because they do not know what to say
• Why relating your own story back to someone in crisis can push them further away
• Angelo on Tim Peters, five days of the same question, and what a relief valve feels like
• Shannon on losing an hour of her drive while carrying her father’s Alzheimer’s diagnosis
• The operational case: supported people produce, and stressed people are a risk to themselves and the crew
• Answering the ROI question, and Cal Beyer’s line that the human case is the business case
• The Loyal Crew: where the name came from, the hard hat sticker, and check in on your crew https://theloyalcrew.justadd10.com/
• What a leader can actually do on Monday morning, on site and in the office
• Where mental health programs fall flat, and what associations could be doing instead
About the guest
Shannon Truax-Wardell, CRSP, is Vice President of Safety, Health and Environment at Preferred Materials, and the founder of The Loyal Crew. She started in construction in 2005 in mining and aggregates after a co-op term paving roads for the County of Simcoe, and studied environmental engineering technology. She led the award winning ready-mix drum suicide prevention campaign and built crisis response and mental health first aid training across her organization. She speaks on mental health and psychological safety in construction both on behalf of her company and independently.
About the Sponsors
The Grand Valley Construction Association’s mission is Building Better Community. While their work is rooted in building the spaces and infrastructure that shape our communities, GVCA recognizes that nothing gets built without the people behind it. That’s why they’re committed to raising awareness, education and support around mental health and suicide prevention in construction, because building better community starts with taking care of the people who build it.
Learn more at: https://www.gvca.org/
Mark’s Commercial’s commitment to helping people get home safely extends beyond physical safety to mental health and well-being. That’s why they’re proud to support this podcast and the important conversations that help create safer, healthier workplaces. Because getting home safely means taking care of both body and mind.
Check them out at: https://www.markscommercial.com/en-ca/
If you are struggling, you are not the only one. In Canada and the US, call or text 988 for the Suicide Crisis Helpline.
This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit humansideofconstruction.substack.com
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