Best Practices for Workplace Suicide Prevention

Why Your Workplace Should Care about Suicide Prevention…

…If you’re an executive or small business owner, this is simple: Suicide hammers productivity.

Also, it’s the right thing to do.

$70 billion plus: Suicides and suicide attempts nationwide in one year surpassed $70 billion in medical and work-loss costs. (CDC 2018) Not included is the cost of lower productivity among workers who grieve for a colleague.

$326 billion: Depression in the nation’s workforce cost this amount annually before the pandemic. (Analysis Group 2021) Depression is a risk factor for suicide and can be chronic, recurring, and debilitating.

Caring for employees has evolved over generations: The eight-hour workday emerged as a big issue in the 1870s. Pensions became reality at major firms in the early 1900s. Today, treating workers as people who experience challenge and crisis in their lives is not only a smart retention tool – it is the right thing to do. With rising numbers of adults who experience suicidal thoughts (Mental Health America), suicide prevention can help keep your workplace safe from tragedy.

What is a “workplace suicide”? This term includes the suicide of any employee of a business, no matter where the death occurred. The reason for this definition? At times, the term “workplace suicide” is considered a geographic description, including only deaths that occur at or inside a worksite. It is in the interest of a business, however, to support its employees in ways that lead to balanced lives and consistent best efforts on the job. Thus, “workplace suicide” in this space refers to any employee’s suicide, no matter the location.

How big is the problem? Over nine of the past 10 years, suicide has been among the nation’s top 10 causes of death. With the pandemic in 2020, suicide fell to the No. 12 cause of death. Preliminary national data for 2020 indicate a total of 44,834 suicides. (CDC)

Start at the beginning: Effective suicide prevention starts long before an individual first thinks about ending their life. Upstream from that painful moment, these values – strong community, healthy conversation, a culture of respect, and easy access to behavioral health care – are what help keep people resilient and productive. These values belong in your workplace if you are serious about preventing suicide.

One Executive’s Approach

Dave Johnson, executive vice president of Hoffman Construction Co., helped his firm develop Hoffman GUTS – Get Us There Safe. This year, along came a ‘second pillar’ to GUTS – a mental health campaign: “Tough Enough to Talk.”

No matter what industry you work in, your leader’s voice is essential to this work. When your CEO or leading executive speaks out on suicide prevention and behavioral health, your managers and your work force will take these issues seriously. If leadership remains silent, your efforts are handicapped at the outset.
A university president who lost his son to suicide shows his leadership and passion in communicating on the issue.

Overview: Developing a Workplace Suicide Prevention Plan

This material offers an overview of the steps needed to build a suicide prevention plan for your workplace. Below, a more detailed version of this step by step plan is available to download. If carried out with dedication and open minds, this work will engage your entire team and bring unexpected strength to your company. Also, we recommend you refer to the excellent material found at Workplace Suicide Prevention.

Implementing an effective suicide prevention plan will take time.

Table of Contents

The Power of Story
Your Work Culture
Onboarding New Workers
Mentors and Peer Supporters
Suicide Prevention Training
Protocols for Suicide Risk
Taking Leave & Returning to Work
After Care

1.The power of story: We can’t fix what we can’t talk about.

Use storytelling as a means of raising awareness about suicide prevention. Discussing delicate issues such as suicide can make some people uneasy. Storytelling is a powerful tool to help set people at ease and help them absorb new material.
Such storytelling can be brief yet powerful, especially if you allow some of your own vulnerability to show. In this context, vulnerability is often seen as personal strength. (“Wow, that was brave, telling us that.”) (Kime, 2020)
If your business holds regular safety meetings, you have a natural space to talk about mental health and suicide prevention. If not, make an opportunity during staff meetings. Develop a plan that allows you to revisit these topics at intervals.

2.Your work culture: Prevention of suicide will involve several facets of your work culture and should include these issues and more:

Establish a culture of respect regarding mental health (CDC).
Emphasize wellness, recognition, flexibility, and celebration to help relieve excess job stress (WSP).
Adopt a management style that allows employee participation in decision-making (NIOSH).

3. Onboarding new workers allows opportunity to emphasize their value to your organization. This culture of respect should extend to continuing support and education:

Support recovery from mental health issues and substance use disorders. (SAMHSA) To do this, make clear to employees. that the business will welcome their requests to create meetings and other potential support.
Educate employees regarding suicide and related mental health concerns.
Some suicide prevention and education on lethal methods should be universal; other elements may be required for managers. All education should remain available to all interested employees without the need to take leave.

4. Mentors, peer supporters, ambassadors or other formal/informal support roles

Develop informal and/or formal roles for individuals who are skilled at listening and offering positive guidance.
Build in ways to publicly recognize not only high-producing employees, but also junior employees with promise and workers in support roles.
Share information throughout the company; encourage questions and feedback both top down and bottom up. These types of transparency help workers feel more in control of their lives.

5. Forefront Suicide Prevention’s LEARN® Training has been customized for certain professional and community audiences. Such training is sometimes known as gatekeeper training and is an essential tool.

Ideally, this training should be universal in your workplace. These trainings always should be available during paid working hours.
If universal training is impossible, ensure training for managers, employees who are informal or natural leaders, and employees with interest in the topic.
Forefront’s LEARN is an evidence-informed training. This means all LEARN material is drawn from evidence-based knowledge. (Forefront, n.d.)

6. Protocols to guide your actions in times of serious suicide risk or crisis

Ensure clear understanding regarding which position(s), among employees trained in suicide prevention, will respond to a report of serious risk or crisis for each division of the workplace.
Maintain a strong policy of removal or locked storage of ‘lethal means,’ i.e., material that can be used to end one’s life. This includes firearms, medications, and chemicals at minimum.
Lethal means safety is an effective way to prevent suicide. (Means Matter, n.d.)

7. Taking leave & returning to work

The federal Family Medical Leave Act ensures that 12 weeks of unpaid leave are available regarding a serious health condition. FMLA covers any employer with at least 50 employees.
A serious suicide attempt that involves hospitalization may be covered under FMLA. (Honigman Law, n.d.) A serious health condition may also include treatment for major depression or a serious mental illness. (Spiggle Law, n.d.) The applicability of FMLA will depend on the circumstances of an individual case.
For employees’ best success, a phased return to work should be offered. Recovery from a serious suicide attempt often calls for professional mental health care. (SAMHSA)

8. After Care: a protocol for actions in the wake of a suicide

The highest priority after a suicide is the wellness of your employees and, to some extent, the family of the deceased employee. An individual who has been considering suicide (whether recognized or not) may be at greater risk. This is true for individuals whose connection with the deceased was through the workplace or through their personal life, and also for emotionally fragile individuals who had no known connection with the decedent.
When speaking of someone who recently died by suicide focus more on their life than on their death.
Grieving the suicide of a child or another loved one entails far more intense suffering than is commonly recognized. Employers should extend time-off options, and gauge the return of employees to full productivity with this in mind. (Petriglieri & Maitlis, 2019)

‘After Care’ is typically referred to as postvention within the field of suicide prevention.