Starting now.
Commonalities where guests find
common ground through uncommon
conversations, politics,
religion, finances,
all the topics your grandmother told
you not to discuss with friends.
And now your host, Matthew Dowling,
and today's guests on commonalities.
Well, welcome to another
episode of Commonalities.
I'm your host, Matt Dowling,
here on W Nmb, S five 90 am 1 0 1 0.1 fm,
and any place you download your favorite
podcasts. Uh, today on commonalities,
my guest is John O'Brien,
and John is with the Keystone
Contractors Association,
as well as the General Contractors
Association of Pennsylvania. John,
thank you for being with us.
Here today. Glad to be here. Thanks
for, uh, thanks for the invite.
I'm looking forward to the talk.
Absolutely. And I know you have a
lot of good information that, uh,
you can share with our listeners at
home here in the Fayette County area,
and those from around the Commonwealth
in the country that tune in to the, uh,
the digital version of our podcast. Now,
I wanted to give you a minute at
the top of the conversation to, uh,
kind of do some self introduction,
give a little bit of your
history and background,
and talk about the organizations
that you work for and Represen.
Represent. Yeah. Um, again, you know,
thanks for having me. Uh, I am, uh,
John O'Brien, as you mentioned.
I grew up in central pa.
Then after high school, went to the
Navy, served our country for four years,
uh, four awesome years. Spent most
of it in nor Norfolk, Virginia.
Thank you for your service. Um.
Enjoyed every minute
of it. Then after that,
went to University of
Pittsburgh and met my, uh,
future wife and two pit grads living
together. She's a pittsburgher.
So we ended up, uh, raising
a family in Pittsburgh.
And then six years ago, the KCA
came calling and said, Hey, uh,
would you maybe consider running kca? Uh,
it's based in Harrisburg.
You grew up in Mechanicsburg and had to
talk to the wife and three daughters,
you know, but, uh, I
think I sold 'em on it,
and we've been here looking on almost
seven years now, and they love it,
and it's been great. So, um, but yeah,
as far as the, the groups I, uh,
I work for and represent, that's,
it's kind of confusing
when I meet with people,
especially in the legislative arena. Um,
so KCA is Keystone Contractor Association.
We are your traditional trade
association, uh, for our union members.
We negotiate on your behalf.
We negotiate with carpenters,
union operating engineers,
laborers, cement, masons, uh,
brick layers, um, kind of the
non-mechanical trades. Uh,
we also offer, uh, education, networking,
all that fun stuff that you get at,
uh, you know, an association,
Gulf outings and, and whatnot.
Um, and then GCAP is General
Contractor's Association of Pennsylvania.
And due to KCA being located
in the Harrisburg area,
the executive director of KCA
has traditionally doubled as
the ED of gcap.
And GCAP members are Master
Builders Association,
where I used to work in Pittsburgh,
and then General Building Contractors
Association in Philadelphia,
and then the association up
in Scranton. So, collectively,
GCAP represents, uh,
thousand plus contractors
all around the Commonwealth,
and it's strictly government affairs.
Um, so yeah, those are the two groups,
and that's kind of who I am
and glad to be here today.
So, John, with those organizations, um,
what are kind of your key roles? I,
I know you oversee the organization,
but what are some of the, uh,
the key goals or objectives of,
uh, of Keystone contractors
or the general contractors.
In pa? Um, like I said, gcap
is more the government affairs.
So those goals are to
monitor legislation and, uh,
you know, push for good,
good policy that increases jobs
and man hours and construction
projects. Uh, the safety's real
important as well as, as, you know,
every organization's safety's,
uh, prior priority number one.
Um, as far as kca, uh, so
like I mentioned in 2016,
they approached me and I,
I know Pittsburgh inside out. I know
all the contractors, I know the history.
I could tell you who
built what building, um,
but take me outside of Allegheny County,
and it was like a whole new world for me.
So I thought I would take the
first six months, you know,
just to kind of get to know the
members and understand what's going on,
and kind of see what their challenges
are and kind of create a strategic plan
from those challenges.
So 2016 into 2017, I was,
you know, going to Johnstown,
Scranton, Redding, York,
all the areas, you know, where we
have a large base of, of contractors.
And the reoccurring issue kept popping
up. I kept hearing about opioids.
He kept hearing about pain meds,
uh, back-to-back meetings with,
uh, an apprenticeship council.
We had back-to-back meetings where he
heard the story about the All-American
boy, you know, he played
all sports in high school.
Then he got into construction, got
some, uh, pains and some issue,
or he had some, uh, you know, some
injuries on the job site. So they would,
you know, push 'em towards pain
meds, you know, to keep 'em working.
And then next thing you
know, it's, you know,
you hear about heroin and death.
It was back to back meetings back in
2017 where it was like death by drugs.
And it just, I just approached the
KCA board and I'm like, this is,
this is nuts. This is crazy. Maybe I
lived a shelter life in, in Pittsburgh,
but I wasn't exposed to all this, you
know, it was quite, quite different.
No,
don't get me wrong with Pittsburgh has
its challenges and some issues as well,
but it was, it was, uh,
worse out here, you know,
as much as far as the industry
goes. So, you know, collectively.
Well, in, in, in, in this,
in the, in this timeframe,
we're seeing even more of addiction
that is starting with per prescription
painkillers. Um, just
within the last year,
we saw that there were a number of, uh,
a number of counties that
came together to, uh,
sue the, um, uh, the makers of Oxycontin.
And of course they won that. And they,
they have some money to spend over the
next 10 years that will be paid out,
uh, to talk about addiction and recovery.
Yeah. So I didn't mean to cut you off,
but we've, we've seen a, a problem, not
that addiction hasn't always been a,
a problem because it has been since
the beginning of civilization really,
um, you know, since man started
using substances of, of any nature.
Um,
but in this time period that
opioid epidemic has really
become, um, a larger problem. That's,
that was one of the biggest issues in my
six years in the general assembly that
we were trying to address. And
unfortunately we're doing so with,
uh, with very little success rates.
So, I didn't mean to cut you off,
but I wanted to kind of
interject how big that problem.
Has become. Yeah, it just cause of
getting bigger and bigger and, you know,
COVID hasn't health matters
at all. Um, but no, like, um,
when I said I didn't realize it was a
bigger problem, I meant more work wise,
more construction wise. Yeah.
So, so Pi Pittsburgh was,
was a pioneer when it
comes to, to drug testing.
We started drug testing the
construction industry in 1999.
This was years before. So
my whole working career,
I've been exposed to drug testing
and, you know, labor management,
working together and working
with the apprentices, you know,
to educate them on the, the
harms of the issues. And,
and there's low drug rates
amongst Pittsburgh's, you
know, construction trades.
And then, like I said,
I move out here in 2016 and I'm
going through the CBAs and I'm like,
there's no mention at all about drug
testing. There's no drug policy at all.
I'm like, I thought this day and age
it would be everywhere, you know,
in construction. So it's kind of a
whole, whole new world for me. Um,
so yeah, like I said, I approached
the KCA board and I said,
we really need to do
something. So, you know,
construction is famous for its,
uh, recognition weeks. You know,
we have like ladder safety week, you
know, driver training, training week,
all these, these different
weeks throughout the year.
And we started one, uh,
last week of July, the
construction opioid awareness week.
It's a week dedicated to,
you know, raising awareness,
getting educational resources out to
employers so they can talk to their
employees about it. Uh,
we got little stickers from the
National Safety Council that workers can
put on their, their insurance
cards and their medical cards.
And once you go to a medical
office or a pharmacy,
you're not pulling that card out again.
So the significance of the sticker
is you, you know, Mr. Employer,
you're sitting down with your workers
saying, Hey, we care about you.
We care about your
family. You know, here's,
here's a sticker I want you to put
on there. Just, just to remind you,
just the back of your head, just, just
so you know, it says, opioids warn me,
you know,
so the pharmacist is supposed to warn
them if there's an opioid and in, uh,
in whenever they're giving them. Um,
so that, that was huge. You know,
we got a lot of, a lot of press, a lot
of positive feedback from contractors.
Um, the best, the best feedback I got
was an electrician out of Redding,
and I've tried since then to reach out
to him just to see what's going on.
But he called me and said, uh, you
know, what you're doing is awesome.
I'm a recovering addict,
and this is amazing.
I'm talking to my coworkers about it. I
feel like I'm can finally talk about it.
You've got it to the point where people
can talk about it in the industry,
and it's not something that
you block anymore. Hide.
Kind of a way of
de-stigmatizing, um, you know,
addiction and allowing to it
to be out in the open, um,
because we can't address that
problem in less, you know,
unless people are open and, and.
<Crosstalk>. But you since left that
company, and I'm trying to track him down.
If he listens to commonalities, hope
he gives me a call again. So <laugh>.
But that was awesome. And then the
coolest part was other states started,
started doing this as well.
So Massachusetts started one,
um, Illinois started, and I
believe, uh, Virginia as well.
So they see the success that we're having
there with employers talking. So it's,
uh, it's good stuff going on here.
Well, hey, that's great, John. And, uh,
and we have to get our first break in.
When we come back, we want
to continue our conversation,
talking a little bit more about, uh,
the workforce and what you're
doing to, uh, recruit, uh,
young people into, uh, into
the construction trades.
But we're gonna take that quick break
and we'll be right back after these
messages.
You are listening to commonalities
where guests find common ground through
uncommon conversations.
We'll be back after this brief
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Thanks for sticking with
us here on commonalities.
I'm your host Matt Dowling on w
Nmb S five 90 am 1 0 1 0.1 fm.
My guest today is John O'Brien with
the Keystone Contractors Association
and the General Contractors
Association of Pennsylvania. John,
before we went to the break,
we were talking a little bit
about new initiatives that, uh,
were kind of born out of your
experiences and your recent
strategic plan that have to deal with, uh,
with addressing the addiction
issues that exist within the,
uh, construction trades. Um,
we wanted to come back from the break
and talk a little bit about recruitment.
And I understand that
you're working with, uh,
a high school here in Pennsylvania
to get young people interested in the
construction trades.
Why don't you tell us a little bit about
the work that you're doing with that.
High school? Yeah, so probably
about a year ago or so,
I,
I was talking to our board and I said it
would be cool to have like a marketing
contest just to see what high school
kids come up with. Cuz you know,
my whole experience and
my whole career, it's,
it's just me and carpenter
training directors and other
contractors going to high
schools saying, oh, you should,
you should help help the industry. You
should work in the industry, you know,
and this is a great career. You
can help your family, you know,
raise a family and
retirement, blah, blah, blah.
And I'm pretty sure it's in one ear out
the other year when you go to those high
school career fairs. Um, and I
was saying to the board, I said,
what if we have like
a contest to see what,
see what high school kids come up
with? Like, what do they want to hear?
And then, and then some just open,
open forum to see what happens.
And I said, well, I'll do some
research. I'll ask around.
So I started calling around to some
local schools and some teachers,
guidance counselors, and
I connected with, uh,
my kids go to Northern High School.
I connected with their marketing and,
and business teacher, Mr.
Neon, great guy. And, and I,
I told Jim my idea Jim
Neon, I said, you know,
it'd be great to somehow some sort
of contest or just see what happens.
And I, I, and he goes, well,
let me, let me throw it out.
Because Northern started something
new this school year. They have, uh,
activity groups after school. So
there's a business group after school.
And he goes, this is the
first year we're doing this,
so we need some sort of project to work
on whenever we meet, you know, every,
every other week or whatever. So he sat
down with the students and said, Hey,
the, the KCA approached us and they
want to do something workforce related,
and they want to see what ideas
high school students come, can, uh,
can come up with maybe some sort
of contest and the best idea gets
money or, or an iPad or
something, you know. And,
and this conversation happened
back in like June or July,
right after school let out. And
then right before Thanksgiving,
Mr. Neon calls me and he said, Hey,
I want to give you an update on that
project. And I, to be honest with you,
I totally forgot about it. You know,
it was a couple months
later and I assumed it was,
it was dead on arrival and no,
not gonna move at all. And, and,
uh, he goes, well, it's
been great. You know,
we spent the last couple months in
school with our marketing group and we're
talking about it,
and we've come up with this idea
where you feed us the benefits,
you feed us, what you,
what you think is best about reasons
to enter the construction industry,
and we're gonna put it
in high school language.
We're gonna put it on
TikTok where kids see it,
we're gonna put it on all the
social media platforms and,
and just get those
messages out there. And,
and then they told me this, and Oh,
that's exciting. That's cool. You know,
and then they're having different
contests throughout the year.
So if you sign up,
they're randomly gonna select someone
and get like some t-shirts or water
bottles or something, something to
get the kids excited or something.
So on the phone, like, oh, that sounds
awesome. That sounds cool. And I said,
actually, we have a KCA event in a couple
weeks. If you want to come and talk,
talk there, that'd be great. You know,
so we were at Dukes on the river, uh,
about two or three weeks ago,
right there. I know Warrensburg.
And he brought four of his students,
Mr. Mason and four students came,
and there was a packed room of 70
plus construction professionals,
and they arrived and, and the,
the students were like, oh,
we're a little nervous, you
know, we didn't expect such
a big crowd or whatever.
But, but they rocked it. I mean,
they were awesome. And they,
they talked about how
they're in the infancy of the
program and they're building
up their database, and it's
gonna be a texting, like I said,
it's gonna be social media. And I'm,
I'm talking to him with them more and
more to get more of the benefits out
there. And then, and then they're
spinning it and putting the,
the high school language
twist behind it. So.
Well.
That's, that's a fantastic idea. You,
you kind of went direct to, uh, you know,
to your target market and have them, um,
giving you some great feedback on, um,
on what you need to do and how best to
connect with, uh, with that generation,
that age group, that demographic.
And, uh, it seems like you guys are,
are doing some great work
there. We have just, uh,
about two to three minutes
before our next break, but, uh,
the next topic I wanted to segue
into is mental health. And,
uh, you know, we may have to, uh,
pause this discussion for our last break
of the episode, uh, and then come back.
But tell me a little bit about what
you're doing to address mental health
issues within the industry.
Um, I mean, to date, we've, I mean, we
have a podcast, the Building PA podcast,
and it'd be great to have you on as
well. Um, but we've had, uh, some, sure,
some renowned speakers from around,
from around the country. Um,
AGC is the largest association in America,
associated General Contractors
of America. They've,
they've launched a
mental health task force,
and we've had that co-chair on there,
this individual named Mandy Keim
out of, uh, the state of Washington.
She started constructions
culture of care. And it's,
it's just an awesome effort,
just kind of like what I talked about
with the stickers. It's, it's like,
it's a way of opening up, you know,
getting rid of the stigma associated with
mental health issues and just letting
people know it's okay to
talk about it. Um, but yeah,
currently you.
You know, and, and if you think about,
you think about the kind of guys, uh,
or people that go into the
construction industry, um, you know,
the,
the general profile that you
would give wouldn't be someone who
is a, uh, you know, these,
sometimes these are burly men, uh,
and, you know,
they're not the kind of people that
would go out and talk about the mental
health issues that they have. Um,
you know, I've, I've read, um,
uh, read several studies and the,
the individuals that go into construction
work are actually at a relatively high
rate of Yep. Of suicide as well.
So I'm sure that mental health is,
is a huge problem for the
community. And listen,
you know, I've, I've gone through,
uh, in my own experiences,
had my own issues. I've
been open about, uh,
my struggles with alcohol addiction
and, uh, and have, you know,
finally gotten those under control
since, uh, since the June timeframe.
Um, it, it's hard for men,
especially that quote
unquote alpha male to, uh,
go to someone else, especially
another man and say, you know what?
I have a problem I need to talk
about. And, uh, and, you know,
I I just think that,
that that's so important that you
are kind of addressing the needs of
mental health, because it's not something
that people want to come out and,
and talk to their coworkers about and,
and say that they need help. So, um,
you know, I didn't mean to cut you
off, but I wanted to interject just,
you know, how important,
uh, mental health is,
e especially with the demographic
of, uh, of construction workers.
Definitely. Yeah. I mean,
um, you mentioned suicide.
This, this stat will blow your mind. It,
it blows my mind every time
I hear and think about it,
but one out of every nine
field construction worker
knows someone that committed
suicide, has worked with someone that
committed suicide. It's just, it's crazy.
So it's definitely a big
issue. And, you know,
we've kind of just kind of thrown
stuff out there to see what works,
see what helps, whatever.
But now this year we're trying to have
more of a uniform approach and kind of a,
you know, uniform approach, I guess
is the best way to address it. So,
plenty to, plenty to talk about, you
know, after the break if you want.
Sure. Well, we do have to
get that break in and, uh,
we will do so right
now. When we come back,
we'll continue our
conversation with John O'Brien,
with the Keystone Contractors
Association and the General Contractor's
Association of Pennsylvania.
We're talking mental health
in the construction field.
Stay with us here on commonalities.
You're listening to commonalities
where guests find common ground through
uncommon conversations.
We'll be back after this brief
break to recognize our sponsors.
Is your business using analog
strategies in a digital marketing world?
If so,
then contact Matthew or Rebecca
Dowling at Coordinated 360 for a
professional consultation where we
bring in-depth knowledge and functional
expertise with a holistic perspective.
Coordinated 360 provides
digital marketing, paid ed,
and media buying services,
web design, social media management,
video production, and more for businesses,
organizations, and political
campaigns with decades of experience.
Matt and Becky at Coordinated 360 can
help you craft your unique message
and share it with the world.
For a no risk media evaluation
and recommendations,
call 7 2 4 3 2 0 22 12,
or visit us online at
www.coordinatedthreesixty.com.
Find us also on Facebook,
Instagram, and Twitter,
or email info coordinated three sixty.com.
Founded in 1991,
bright Stripe has succeeded on
the premises of quality work,
done right at an affordable cost.
At Bright Stripe personal
service has always been a must.
We strive to be the premier
asphalt ceiling and striping
company in the region.
Matt George, the owner
of Brights Stripe llc,
brings experience from his
construction and maintenance company,
mountain Creek Construction
and Maintenance.
Matt has provided excellent customer
service to many happy businesses and
homeowners.
Bright Stripe is the premier provider
of seal coating or pavement ceiling.
The process of applying a protective
coating to asphalt based pavements to
provide a layer of protection from the
elements, water, oils, and UV damage.
They also specialize in driveway
and parking lot. Crack ceiling.
Crack ceiling is the process of applying
a protective coating to asphalt based
pavements.
Bright stripe also abides by all safety
laws and standards in line striping and
layout. For a no obligation
estimate, contact Bright Stripe at
7 24 4 3 7 6 0 9 0.
When it comes to buying a home,
what you see isn't exactly what you get.
That's why home buyers should call
Dave Dowling At Grandview Inspections
at 7 2 4 2 0 8 4 1 0 8.
You'll see colorful flowers,
freshly painted walls,
granite countertops, gleaming
hardwood floors, and other touches.
What you can't see is the
cracks, ancient plumbing,
dangerous wiring,
or broken appliances that might
be revealed when you hire a home
inspector. And when it
comes to home inspectors,
knowing yours has the qualifications
and experience needed,
should be your number one concern.
Dave Dowling with Grandview Inspections
is an architectural engineer
with over 30 years of commercial
construction experience and hundreds of
inspections under his belt.
A home inspection is an opportunity
for you to hire an expert to
walk through the home and prepare
a report outlining the home's major
components.
What needs immediate attention and what
will require maintenance after you move
in Your home is one of
your biggest investments.
So make sure your investment is
everything you hoped it to be.
Call Dave Dowling at
Grandview Inspections at
7 2 4 2 0 8 4 1 0 8.
Are you enjoying the program?
You're listening to support commonalities
and help keep us on the air by making
a donation of five, 10, or $25, or any
amount you feel comfortable sharing
[email protected] Again,
that is donate.commonalities.online
on the worldwide web.
Buy our host a cup of coffee or help pay
for airtime at donate dot commonalities
online.
Welcome back to Commonalities.
I'm your host, Matt Dowling. Uh,
my guest today is John O'Brien with
the Keystone Contractors Association,
also abbreviated as K C A,
we're the General Contractors
Association of Pennsylvania, gcap.
And John, before the break, we were
talking mental health in construction.
So why don't, don't we go ahead and,
uh, pick up the conversation where we.
Sure. Yeah, like I was
mentioning, um, you know,
we've done some podcast episodes,
we've done some seminars,
all various stuff on, um, mental
health issues, addiction recovery.
We have the Construction
Opioid Awareness Week,
where we really talk about recovery
and addiction, and it's beyond,
it's called Opioid Awareness
Week, but, you know,
it kind of covers alcohol as well too,
and other drugs and, um, but yeah, we,
we've just kind of tried to
supply a bunch of resources to
employers in hopes that they'll get it
to the workers and make it okay to talk
about. Um, but this year, um, as
part of our, uh, strategic plan,
it's something that we really want
to, uh, focus on and help out,
and more of a concentrated
effort, you know,
to help out in the area of mental health.
And we, we kind of broke it down the,
the four key areas. Um, number one,
understand it is important, you know,
like, like you said before the break,
it's a male dominated industry, tough
guy industry over the years, you know,
we don't talk about feelings. Uh,
something's wrong just after work,
grab a drink or something
and get over it, you know,
and just show up the next day. And, and
that's the wrong way to look at life,
you know? And, and that's not what
future generations want, you know,
future workers, they don't
want that, you know, in,
in current and older workers,
they don't need that, you know,
so just make sure the con
construction community, the owners,
the companies, make sure they know
it's a big issue and, and they see it.
Like I said, that one in
nine before the break,
one in nine construction workers know
someone that committed suicide. So,
so yeah, that's a big deal, you know,
and one in 26 management knows someone
on their staff that committed suicide.
So it's, it touches everyone.
Labor and management,
not just people in the field. Um, just.
You know, and in the, the construction
industry is such a different culture. Uh,
you know, it just for the listeners
that may not know this, or,
or for you if you don't know this,
John, my my dad was partners, uh,
in an industrial construction
company. Uh, they did, uh,
general contracting and uh, and
construction management. And,
uh, in my college years, that
was my summer profession. Um,
so I was out in the field, uh,
normally mix and mud for, uh,
for the guys that were, uh,
were laying brick and so forth.
Um, you know, the culture is just, it,
it's, it's completely different. Um,
these are individuals that really are,
are great people that have a good heart.
Um, it just expressing emotion is, uh,
is very difficult within the
culture. And that's something that I,
I quickly realized, you know,
and I was on that six until
two 30 or three o'clock shift,
uh, for a long time. And, you
know, between three and five, when,
when the Mrs gets home, um, you
know, a a lot of my coworkers would,
uh, would stop the bar and they spent
their first couple hours off, um,
there. So, you know, I, I know how,
how this culture can really,
uh, lend itself to, uh,
to people with addiction issues and,
and addiction ties directly into
mental health, which is what we're,
what we're talking about.
So, um, you know, let,
let's continue our conversation on campus.
Yeah. And you mentioned there
are good people. I mean,
you won't find better hearts. I don't
think so in any industry. I mean,
it's just amazing all the giving back
to communities and all the volunteer
efforts. It's awesome. So,
um, but yeah, number one,
understanding it's important. You know,
number two is raising awareness. Um,
couple ways we're doing that is, you know,
we're creating job site posters
that has numbers, you know,
phone numbers for outreach, you
know, veteran assistants, you know,
cause a lot of veterans, um, you know,
have a lot of mental
health issues as well.
And that's another group of people that
sometimes keep their emotions in check
and don't like to talk about it too
much. But that simple little thing,
like a job site poster is a way
to attack the stigma and a way to
let people know, Hey, I guess it's, you
know, it's, it's okay to talk, you know,
it's okay, but it's okay
not to be okay. You know,
this is just one little way that,
and, uh, we have toolbox talks.
Our association, we send, uh,
every Monday morning at 6:00 AM
we send toolbox talks, uh, to,
to our members. Um, you
know, OSHA requires them on
some projects or whatever,
but it's a, a thing that we do weekly
and we're working in a lot of, uh,
working in a lot of toolbox talks on
mental health and suicide and addiction,
whatever,
just to keep the conversation going and
letting people know it's okay to talk
about it. Um, and then
as also raise awareness.
Make sure people know
about EAPs, you know,
employee assistant programs and
just let 'em know the, the employer,
the company's here for you. Just make
sure, make sure that's a known track,
you know. And step three is
kind of just looking internally.
Um, there's some really awesome
self-assessment tools online. You know,
one being, uh, man therapy,
which I, which I like.
And every few months I've,
I've gone to the website and it is just
a way to recharge yourself and just kind
of figure out what's going on.
And it, it delivers it in a,
in a non-serious way.
I think a lot of the self-assessment
tools would quickly turn off the
construction workforce cuz it's so,
it's so straight laced, you know,
just kind of no nonsense. Um,
so we offer kind of both tools.
We send out the email links to all the
companies, give out to their employers,
out to their employees, and just
kind of, one is more straight laced.
One is just just the facts, man, you
know, and then if you go to Man therapy,
which I could send you the link
afterwards, and it's, it's comical,
it's kind of funny, but it delivers a
very strong and impactful message. Um,
so it could turn some people off
not thinking it's a serious issue,
but it's just the way to reach different
audiences. So looking internally is,
is important, you know, from company
owners all the way down to the employees.
Um, and through those first
three steps, um, you know,
I think, I think you'll see, and we hope
what will happen is people talk more.
And then within companies, we
have a mental health task force,
and we're going to meet every month.
And, and from all this outreach,
the task force is going to devise plans
and strategies and what educational
tools are needed. We're definitely
not gonna reinvent the wheel.
There's tons of great resources out
there from groups like National Safety
Council, and even my old Work
Master Builders Association.
They're doing a great job
on this, in this area.
So we're gonna promote those
good tools that they have and,
and for what's missing,
we're gonna create that resource
or create that educational program.
Just think there's lots
of work to do and these,
these workers give it their all and they
do their everything they can to build
Pennsylvania, and we need
to be there for that.
Absolutely. Absolutely. And, and that's,
uh, important information to get out.
I think those job site posters, uh,
will be great because we're talking
about substance abuse and mental health.
I wanted to to also mention
that there is, uh, a new,
um, crisis and suicide lifeline, uh,
three digit number that people can call.
So if you or someone you know
are in a crisis situation,
that number is 9 88.
And that was just activated this last
year throughout the United States.
So again, 9 88 Suicide
and Crisis Lifeline.
That is through the Substance abuse and
Mental Health Services Administration.
Um, uh, best way to to think
of their acronym is SAM hsa,
and you can go to sam hsa.gov
for more information. John,
we're just down to the last 60
seconds here in the program today.
Why don't you give us any final thought.
You made? Uh, I'm just glad
you mentioned the 9 88. I mean,
we put it on our website and, and they,
they got that out in the
fall and I was, I was, oh,
let's do all this mental outreach and
all this campaign. Let's do that in 2023.
And then knowing that the holidays were
coming and it's a very stressful time,
you know, we really pushed it forward
and really did a lot of work in November,
December, just, just in time
for the holidays. Um, and
did hear back from a few,
a few labor members, labor friends,
and we're appreciative that we're
getting these resources out there,
the self-assessment tools
and, and, uh, you know,
it's a serious issue and we're gonna
keep plugging away and we're just wanna
help the industry.
Yeah. Well, hey, thank you so much for
making some time for me here, John, uh,
right after the holidays. Uh,
my guest today has been
John O'Brien with K C A,
the Keystone Asso Contractors
Association and gcap General Contractors
Association of Pennsylvania. Wanna
thank you again for being on the show.
You guys are doing important work,
uh, within the field of construction,
not just to recruit young people, uh,
to help build a better Pennsylvania,
but to, uh,
also address the issues that the industry
sees with mental health and addiction.
It's, uh, been a great conversation.
You too. You have a great day now.
Take care, Matt.
Thanks. This has been commonalities,
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