To close out this year’s Construction Suicide Prevention Week – a conversation worth returning to.
“They called me the suicide guy.”
We were in Phoenix, Arizona earlier this year recording episode 19 of the Skilled AF podcast with Josh Vitale, Co-founder & CEO of Project BUILT, and Angelo Suntres, Founder of Human Side of Construction.
I couldn’t believe what Josh Vitale was recounting. Two dozen suicide interventions he had personally conducted as a superintendent during a massive semiconductor project in Chandler, Arizona. Yes, the same one that got tons of fanfare when former President Biden visited.
8,000 people on site.
45-50 million man hours.
A ton of people in crisis.
“Dubious as it may be, they called me the suicide guy because I had built a community center on that job site,” shares Vitale.
In one of his interventions, an ironworker was on the brink. An ex-Army veteran who served in one of the toughest units in Afghanistan had just gotten news that he had lost the 22nd person from his unit to suicide. His brother was a foreman on the job and called Vitale. “Can you meet with my brother down at the trailer? He’s really struggling.” It was in that moment that Josh knew he was the guy for this job. “If not you, then who? If not now, then when?”
As a Complex Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (CPTSD) survivor, Vitale lived with suicidal ideation for 20 years. Raised by an abusive stepfather, he carried that pain throughout most of his adult life. It’s taken him years to heal and be able to speak openly about what he experienced – years he credits to his wife Amy, getting sober, and a mindfulness practice. Because of his lived experience, he felt uniquely positioned to be able to help others in the industry.
As Josh shares in this episode, he’d be in these situations trying to figure out what was missing between these men and them getting the help that they needed.
That gap is where Project BUILT was born.
Josh will tell you the industry is still stuck in the wrong gear. “We’re in the awareness phase, but we’re not in the action phase. And I’m a builder – I wanted to be in the action phase.” So he and his wife, Amy, started digging into what’s actually breaking these men.
A pattern appeared.
“Everyone I ever did an intervention with and all of the superintendents and workers that I talked to, they say the same thing. I’ve been divorced two times. My kids don’t speak to me. I’ve sacrificed my entire life for a family that doesn’t appreciate it.”
Lack of hope. Loss of connection. Family.
It was the same thing Josh and Amy were struggling with themselves – the migratory nature of the work, the isolation, reintegrating into the family when you’re home, creating a healthy environment even though you’re on the road. “If you can find a way to heal the family, it is the black swan,” shares Vitale.
Modeled in part on Project Sanctuary, which has run retreats for more than 10,000 military families over 15 years, the approach is to treat the household as the unit worth saving, because a person with somewhere to belong has a reason to climb out of the hole.
Content warning: This episode discusses suicide, substance use, addiction, and workplace mental health crises.
If you or someone you know is in immediate danger or experiencing a mental health crisis, please take one of the following actions:
Call 911 (or your local emergency number)
Call or text 988 – the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline in the U.S. available 24/7