Construction Organizations Mobilizing for Peer Support & Suicide Safety (COMPASS)
A Suicide Prevention Framework
COMPASS (Construction Organizations Mobilizing for Peer Support and Suicide Safety) is an evidence-based, field-tested framework to reduce suicides among construction workers. Tailored to meet the U.S. industry’s specific conditions, it is a simple, scalable, low-cost, adaptable intervention that responds to the 5,000 construction deaths from suicide each year. COMPASS’s comprehensive framework offers contractors a ten-step guide on how to implement and sustain a suicide prevention program within their own companies. The framework can be adapted by companies of varying sizes, cultures, and organizational structures to build and expand mental health programs and services over time. COMPASS has been used successfully to implement suicide prevention programs at several Midwest construction sites in partnership with researchers at Washington University in St. Louis.
Construction workers have high rates of mental health disorders, including one of the highest suicide rates of any occupation. U.S. construction workers are more than twice as likely to die by suicide than male workers overall, and they are five times more likely to die from suicide than from a workplace injury. These dire statistics highlight the need for an evidence-based framework designed for the unique organization and culture of the U.S. construction industry to help companies support construction workers on the job.
Developed to meet the unique needs of the U.S. construction industry, the COMPASS framework helps construction contractors to assess, develop, and strengthen their suicide awareness and prevention programs. COMPASS was developed by university-based worker health programs in Missouri and Iowa, in partnership with contractors, labor unions, the Missouri Associated General Contractors (AGC), and CPWR–The Center for Construction Research and Training. COMPASS provides contractors with an adaptable framework for implementing and maintaining an effective program to support mental health and prevent suicide in their workforce. While tailored for contractors, the COMPASS framework can be adapted to other construction organizations, including unions, who could use it in conjunction with other mental health support programs.
The COMPASS framework was inspired by “MATES in Construction,” an evidence-based suicide prevention program developed for and by the Australian construction industry that has since been expanded to other countries and to the mining, energy, and manufacturing industries. MATES is effective in encouraging help seeking and help offering, empowering peers and leaders to more effectively offer help, and improving workers’ ability to navigate to programs and resources in the event of a mental health crisis. COMPASS adopts key elements of MATES, including three levels of suicide prevention training to create a peer connector network on a jobsite or throughout a company (see Figure 1).
COMPASS includes these resources:
- Playbook (a pdf of each element of the framework)
- Guide to Implementing COMPASS
- Toolbox Talks
- Readiness Questionnaire
- Referral Template (PDF link)
- Resources, Literature, and Acknowledgements
After you use COMPASS, please take a minute to answer a few questions about your organization to help us evaluate the use of our program. You can also request more information, including a consultation from the COMPASS team.
Figure 1: Three Levels of Suicide Prevention Training
The first level is a general awareness training (GAT) to increase knowledge and awareness of suicide prevention for everyone who is employed by a contractor, or all workers on a specific jobsite. This training can be delivered as a 1-hour presentation or as five short toolbox talks. The second level is safeTALK (4 hours), which trains volunteer “peer connectors” who interact with their coworkers and connect them with needed help. The third is Applied Suicide Intervention Skills Training (ASIST) to equip a smaller number of “navigators” with the skills to work with peer connectors and provide further evaluation and referral to workers in need of help. Together, these three levels of training aim to encourage workers to seek help for mental health issues, to establish a peer-based “gatekeeper” network on construction worksites where workers are encouraged to offer help to co-workers in need, and to improve evaluation and referrals to mental health and other services for workers in need.
Using This Guide
COMPASS includes these resources:
- Playbook (a pdf of each element of COMPASS)
- Guide to Implementing COMPASS
- Toolbox Talks
- Readiness Questionnaire
- Referral Template (PDF link)
- Resources, Literature, and Acknowledgements