SPONSORED RESEARCH: Applying implementation science to advance suicide prevention in the construction industry in partnership with the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention and Bechtel
May 28, 2026
Read a Q&A Below:
Rinad Beidas, PhD, Meredith Boyd, PhD, and the Ideas to Implementation (I2I) team at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine Department of Medical Social Sciences (MSS) received a contract from the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention (AFSP) titled, “Applying implementation science to advance suicide prevention in the construction industry.”
What are the aims of the project?
The construction industry has the second highest rate of suicide deaths by industry. Driven by a shared mission to save lives, Hard Hat Courage was founded in partnership between AFSP, the nation’s leading organization dedicated to suicide prevention, and Bechtel, a trusted global engineering, construction, and project management partner. The Hard Hat Courage initiative was built to confront the high rates of suicide in the construction community and evolve the industry to one that prioritizes mental health alongside physical safety. Attention to how initiatives are implemented can determine whether they succeed or fail. With this in mind, the I2I team is working with the initiative to:
Aim 1: Embed implementation science insights into the initiative’s evaluation plan.
Aim 2: Study implementation processes and outcomes in up to four construction organizations to identify concrete, multi‑level factors that support sustained and effective suicide prevention.
What are your next steps?
Currently, we are working with our partners at AFSP to build an evaluation plan and identify construction organization partners to serve as case study sites for Aim 2. With these organizations, we will do a deep dive on the process of implementation by conducting qualitative interviews with employees across organizational levels, reviewing organizational collateral documents (e.g., employee onboarding materials and handbooks), collecting surveys, and tracking participation across suicide prevention initiatives.
What do you hope will come out of this funded research?
Ultimately, we want to provide construction organizations with clear guidance for maximizing the success of their suicide prevention initiative implementation. We will create a practical, industry‑specific playbook that helps organizations plan, launch, and sustain suicide prevention initiatives by linking common challenges to clear, actionable solutions.