Final Scope

Highway workers confront alarming statistics regarding mental illnesses, suicide, and addiction. Approximately 16.5% of construction workers report heavy drinking, 11.6% engage in illicit drug use, and 14.3% battle substance misuse addictions. Opioid overdoses, responsible for 47,600 deaths in 2017, disproportionately affected the construction and extraction industry, contributing to 26% of these fatalities. Disturbingly, the construction sector faces elevated suicide rates, five times the rate of the general population. Males in the construction field exhibit notably higher suicide rates than any other industry. This trend is further exacerbated in transportation projects, where extended and irregular working hours, coupled with prolonged work-related travel, make the industry even more vulnerable.  

Initiatives spearheaded by industry and trade organizations aim to educate and promote mental wellbeing and build resiliency. However, in the transportation sector, these initiatives need broader acceptance, not only by contractors but also by state departments of transportation (DOTs), to establish a culture prioritizing mental wellbeing for suicide and substance abuse prevention. As the industry grapples with endemic mental health challenges, there is significant variability in organizational awareness and implementation strategies across different state DOTs.

The objective of this synthesis is to document state DOT practices on education and promotion of mental health, suicide prevention, and addiction mitigation for highway workers. 

Information to be gathered includes (but is not limited to):

·       Policies, procedures, and/or guidelines state DOTs have in place to educate and promote employee mental health, suicide prevention, and addiction mitigation efforts;

·       Programmatic examples (peer support, partnerships, trainings, etc.) that state DOTs employ to educate and promote employee mental health, suicide prevention, and addiction mitigation efforts among all workers, including those who may work non-standard shifts;

·       Practices on measuring or tracking of implementation of policies, procedures, guidelines or programmatic examples; 

·       Documents, reports, or contract language state DOTs utilize to encourage or require contracted workforces to educate and promote employee mental health, suicide prevention, and addiction mitigation efforts;

·       Communication gaps between headquarters and front line staff;

·       DOT characteristics that may influence the policies, procedures, and/or guidelines (permanent or temporary employees, union or non-union workforces, civil service or non-civil service, human resources in the DOT or a statewide agency, a centralized DOT, semi-centralized, or de-centralized DOT); and

·        Innovations available to address mental health, suicide prevention, and addiction mitigation efforts available.

Information will be gathered through a literature review, a survey of state DOTs, and follow-up interviews with selected DOTs for the development of case examples. Information gaps and suggestions for research to address those gaps will be identified. 

Information Sources (Partial)

·     FTA. (2022). SA-22-4 Safety Advisory: Suicide Prevention Signage on Public Transit

·     FTA. “Mental Health Resources for Transit Workers”  https://www.transit.dot.gov/regulations-and-programs/safety/mental-health-resources

·     Peterson C., Sussell A., Li J., Schumacher P.K., Yeoman K., Stone D.M. Suicide Rates by Industry and Occupation — National Violent Death Reporting System, 32 States, 2016. MMWR Morb Mortal Wkly Rep 2020;69:57–62. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.15585/mmwr.mm6903a1

·     USDOT - Office of Drug and Alcohol Policy & Compliance - https://www.transportation.gov/odapc/employee

·     Construction Coalition for a Drug- and Alcohol-Free Workplace

·     Orlando Recovery Center.  Construction Workers and Addiction. https://www.orlandorecovery.com/resources/construction-workers-and-addiction/#:~:text=Among%20full%2Dtime%20construction%20workers,to%20alcohol%20or%20other%20drugs

·     The Center for Construction Research and Training. Resources to Prevent Suicide Deaths in Construction. https://www.cpwr.com/research/research-to-practice-r2p/r2p-library/other-resources-for-stakeholders/mental-health-addiction/suicide-prevention-resources/ 

TRB Staff

Trey Joseph Wadsworth

Phone: 202-334-2307

Email: twadsworth@nas.edu

Meeting Dates

First Panel Meeting: September 10, 2024, Washington, DC

Teleconference with Consultant: October 28, 2024

Second Panel Meeting: June 4, 2025, Washington, DC