23-05-2025
Colorado mother helps construction workers address mental health, drug abuse and suicides
Workers in the construction industry often face unique challenges that can impact their own mental health, leading to concerns like drug abuse or even suicide.
CBS
A local task force and working group is now hoping to make change within the construction industry, while a local mother is turning her son's death into advocating for mental health awareness on job sites.
"Throughout my life, I've lost people to suicide and to substance use disorder," Heather Gutierrez said.
In March 2022, Gutierrez lost her 17-year-old son, Ty, to an intentional fentanyl overdose. He'd been struggling with his mental health for several years.
"It got progressively worse. He was in and out of inpatient and outpatient treatment, and there was not a good resource to support him," Gutierrez explained. "You feel helpless, and it shows how much of a need there is, not just in construction, but mental health and recovery support across the board."
Gutierrez is the co-chair of the Mental Health Working Group at Associated General Contractors alongside co-chair Nick Williams.
The working group started as a task force in 2021 in response to alarming numbers and trends within the construction industry. Through research, they found that construction leads all private industries in suicide and overdose deaths.
Williams also said the number of drug overdoses in the U.S. reduced by about 35%, according to recently published data, but construction did not see the same kind of reduction.
"Unfortunately, we still do have an abnormal number of deaths by opioid overdose in our industry," Williams said.
Williams added there is culture of alcohol abuse in construction among other factors that could impact one's mental health in construction.
"It's things like isolation, hard work, tough work. It's tough on the body, access to the types of drugs that people get when they are hurt at work," said Williams, who is also the CEO of the American Subcontractors Association of Colorado. "We also have the presence of wondering where my next paycheck is going to come from and the seasonality of the work."
The group's goal is encouraging conversations in construction about mental health, substance use disorder and suicide. They also encourage employers to create a safe space to have those conversations and provide help when needed.
"There was a large stigma, even five years ago," Williams said. "But we've started to see that stigma reduce just by normalizing the conversation."
"Having leaders that have been through suicide, has been through substance use, or even have been, you know, in active addiction themselves, speak out," Gutierrez said.
The working group also trains people on symptoms to look out for and provides information on resources to employers and employees. They hope to provide equitable resources to anyone who might need them.
"There's a template for what can be productive," Williams said. "You've seen things like harm reduction, access to Narcan, access to naloxone, ready access to good, high quality mental health care."
In 2024, the task force also held a first-of-its-kind training in the construction industry in Colorado, to train workers how to administer naloxone, which is a medicine that reverses an opioid overdose. Those in the training heard from a survivor of an opioid overdose, and a recovery counselor. Another training like it will happen in August.
Their hope is to reduce suicide rates and drug overdoses by making a cultural change in the construction industry and prioritizing mental health in the workplace.
"I think if construction can really embrace some of those templates, we can see that reduction in our workforce as well," Williams said. "There's no shortage of great people doing great work, and that's encouraging."
"What we do is inherently dangerous. So, if you are mentally not prepared, not only are you not safe for yourself, but you're also not safe for your wingman next to you," Gutierrez said.
For Gutierrez the work is personal too, in honor of her son.
"It's not a helpless movement. We just must get the words out there," said Gutierrez. "I'm not going to let anybody forget my son, and his death will not be in vain."
