High-risk workplaces are uniquely positioned to help save lives by systematically embedding awareness, education, and interventions into their organization’s health and safety priorities.

The majority of adults who experience mental health problems, including suicide, are in the workforce (World Health Organization, 2006). However, the majority of workplaces are not prepared to help employees who might be struggling with suicidal thoughts or behaviors, nor are most prepared to cope with the aftermath of an employee’s suicide with appropriate and evidence-informed postvention practices. Now more than ever, workplace and professional organizational leaders are searching for innovative ways to support their employees’ mental health and work toward improving overall work environments to support a culture of health and well-being. Workplaces are a uniquely positioned and necessary part of a larger public health approach to suicide prevention, and as such, they can systematically embed suicide awareness, education, and intervention into their organization’s health and safety priorities. 

In this presentation, representatives from AFSP, OSHA, United Survivors of Suicide, and others will provide an overview of the scope of the problem of suicide in certain high-risk work environments including, but not limited to, farming & agriculture, construction, and Corrections, information on the National Guidelines for Workplace Suicide Prevention, including the recommended nine key practices for workplace suicide prevention (www.workplacesuicideprevention.com), and suicide prevention and postvention programs and resources developed by the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention to support workplace suicide prevention efforts.