Last month highlighted mental health awareness, which has been a hot topic in the safety industry for a while now. While many compliance-focused training programs don’t cover mental health and wellness topics, safety professionals have been increasingly trying to emphasize resources in the workplace.

I had the opportunity to talk to Clare Epstein, General Manager, Commercial at Vector Solutions, recently on this topic, and would like to share a few highlights.

Q: Many leaders still view mental health as an HR or "benefits" issue. How does treating mental health as a core safety initiative change the way people think about mental health?

Epstein: When mental health is positioned as an HR or benefits issue, it often becomes something that’s addressed reactively or only during specific moments like open enrollment or awareness campaigns. But on a job site, risk doesn’t operate that way.

Treating mental health as a core safety initiative reframes it as something that directly impacts day-to-day operations, just like fall protection or hazard reporting. It shifts the mindset from “this is optional support” to “this is part of how we keep people safe.”

In construction, where workers face suicide rates twice that of the general population and five times more deaths than jobsite injuries, the connection is clear. Mental health isn’t separate from safety, it’s part of the same risk landscape.

Q: What are the most common examples of where leaders feel stuck regarding mental health, and how does training help them move from recognizing a red flag to actually intervening?

Epstein: The biggest place leaders get stuck is the gap between awareness and action. They may notice something is off – a worker is withdrawn, missing shifts, or behaving differently – but they don’t know what to do next.

That tracks with what we found in our State of Frontline Safety Leadership in Construction research: 71% of construction supervisors said they had been approached by a worker about personal issues such as mental health or substance use. At the same time, 64% worry that saying the wrong thing could make a worker’s situation worse.

Those findings point to two common barriers: fear of saying the wrong thing and lack of clear protocols for how to respond. Training helps close that gap by giving leaders a clear framework for what to look for, how to start a supportive conversation, and where to direct someone for support.

It takes something that feels ambiguous and turns it into a structured, repeatable process, similar to how we train for physical safety risks.

Q: When a company successfully integrates mental health into its safety culture, what leading indicators should they be looking for to measure the effectiveness of their training?

Epstein: A few key indicators stand out:

• Increased willingness to report concerns or ask for help
• More consistent use of support resources
• Greater supervisor confidence in handling sensitive situations

Organizations also start to see changes in behavior, more open conversations, earlier intervention, and stronger team cohesion. Importantly, the focus should extend beyond tracking incidents to measuring engagement with the systems and support structures that help prevent them in the first place.

Our research also reinforces the connection between structured training and stronger outcomes, and why those leading indicators matter. Ninety-three percent of supervisors said structured supervisor training leads to fewer safety incidents, and 91% said it improves crew satisfaction and morale. That connection is important because effective mental health training should show up not only in lower incident risk, but also in how comfortable people feel raising concerns, using support resources, and looking out for one another on the job.