In spring 2023, Reid Wobby, an employee wellness consultant with VTHC in Vermont, sat down with his father, Richard Wobby, Executive Vice President of Associated General Contractors of Vermont (AGC/VT), to spell out the mental health crisis in the construction industry.

During one of their conversations, he shared the Vermont Social Autopsy Report, which showed that, compared to other industries in the state, construction had the highest rate of overdose deaths and second-highest rate of suicide deaths.

As a result, “We, as AGC, made a commitment to send out an educational piece and a dose or two of Narcan,” Richard said. “Within a week or two, we had a contractor calling because there was an incident on a site and, because of their ability to put their hands on Narcan, we saved somebody immediately. Since then, we’ve had a direct positive response on five different individuals on construction sites across Vermont and 25 or so people within our communities.”

Their efforts evolved into the Vermont Employee Wellness Partnership, an initiative that involves AGC/VT, the Vermont Department of Health, and Vermont-based nonprofits including Jenna’s Promise, Invest EAP, and the Center for Health and Learning.

“We started with overdose prevention, which we thought was the most immediate danger,” Reid said. “Over the course of six months, we distributed 10,000 doses of Narcan and did 10 trainings on overdose prevention and response.”

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In addition, with the help of partner organizations, when individuals self-identify as having a problem, “We have pathways and immediate points of contact we can get them in touch with to help start down the road of recovery,” he said.

One of the initiative’s nonprofit partners, Jenna’s Promise, was co-founded by Gregory Tatro, a member of the executive team at G.W. Tatro Construction in Jeffersonville, Vermont.

When his sister passed away from an overdose, “One of her last wishes was to help other people like her,” Tatro said.

“More people have died from the overdose crisis in the last 15 years than all wars combined, going back to about World War I,” he added. “One of our community partners said it’s the equivalent of a 747 jet going down every day — but if that happened, we’d be halting all flights until we figured out what was going on. Because it’s overdoses and drug use, we don’t talk about it.”

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Part of the mission of Jenna’s Promise is to break down stigmas.

“One of the most difficult areas to have this conversation is in construction,” Tatro said. “If you’re with a group of people who haven’t thought about this or who are anti-Narcan, the chances of people who are suffering getting the help they need or feeling safe asking for help is pretty low. By moving all the construction industry in Vermont toward this goal with this important message, I think it really opened up doors for lives to be saved and to keep people from slipping into this pathway in the first place.”

During the first six months of the campaign, as AGC/VT and its partners focused on overdose prevention, “We got a recurring question about how to help with co-occurring mental health crises,” Reid said. “At that point we didn’t really have a lot of resources to help.”

However, because of that feedback, “We increased our level of response and resources,” he said. “Rather than it just being an overdose prevention campaign, we renamed it our Diseases of Despair campaign. That includes substance use disorder, alcohol use disorder, isolation, and suicide.”

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The team has conducted more than 50 training sessions on the Diseases of Despair, focusing on mental health and destigmatization.

“We talk about the way people in the construction industry, and specifically men, feel about their mental health,” Reid said. “It’s OK for men in the construction industry to talk to some of these resources if they’re struggling or dealing with a crisis — because daily, men in the construction industry are killing themselves. That’s an existing hazard that we’ve identified and are working hard to help curb.”

The Employee Wellness Partnership focuses on sharing resources.

“I equate it to this: When you cut your finger really bad in the kitchen, it’s the worst time to have to go to the pharmacy to buy a bandage; you want to have it in the first aid kit,” Reid said. “The same thing applies to a mental health or substance use crisis. When you’re dealing with those crises, you don’t have time to get on Google and search for who you can talk to in Vermont. We need to have these resources in people’s first aid kits.”

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Since its inception last year, the partnership has:

• Reached approximately 150,000 people across Vermont (25 percent of the state’s population)
• Distributed 15,000 Narcan doses to Vermont businesses and organizations
• Distributed 25,000 harm reduction kits to help people in need
• Created a portable training and awareness campaign
• Held 25 onsite visits with contractors and other organizations to discuss mental health and employee well-being

“I go by the theory of casting a really wide net,” Reid said. “Whenever I give a talk, I bring a ton of resources — Narcan, harm reduction packs, 988 cards (for the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline), cards from Man Therapy (a mental health campaign). I give a bag of goodies to each person who attends. Hopefully they find their way into somebody’s first aid kit, but the more widely we have this conversation, the more prepared people will be for when some of these things start popping up in their lives.”

The partnership’s efforts have been recognized twice nationally in the last six months — as a chapter winner for the 2024 AGC in the Community award from AGC Charities and as a Power of Associations Gold Award recipient by the American Society of Association Executives.

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For more information on the Vermont Employee Wellness Partnership, visit AGCVT.org or call Richard at 802-223-2374.