Why we built this

Before you start

Read this out loud. It takes about five minutes and it works better standing up with the crew than sitting in a trailer.

Two things not to do. Do not ask anybody to share how they are doing, because the moment this turns into a round of check-ins the people who most need it go quiet and stay quiet. And do not push the app on anybody. Say it is there, say what it costs, and move on to the work.

The talk

There is a group called Project BUILT. Everything they have made got put together by builders, superintendents, safety directors and counselors, and a lot of it by people who have buried somebody or sat up all night with somebody who nearly was.

They built it because of a number. CDC puts our line of work at the highest drug overdose death rate of any occupation group in the country, and the suicide rate for men in construction is close to double the rate for working men generally. Those figures are the floor and not the estimate, because a death only gets counted to a job class if somebody wrote the occupation down and often nobody did.

So they made a free thing. It is called Rebar, it takes about ten minutes, and it asks straight questions about sleep, money, drinking, how connected you feel, and whether you have been having thoughts of hurting yourself. It is in English, Spanish and Arabic.

Here is the part that matters for whether anybody actually uses it. Everything you put in stays on your own phone. There is no account and there is no server holding it. Project BUILT cannot look you up. I cannot look you up. This company cannot look you up, and neither can anybody in the office. If you delete it, it is gone and nobody has a copy.

They gave up something real to do it that way. Their own numbers come out coarser than a normal app's and they undercount on purpose, because people only tell the truth when nothing is being kept.

Three things to talk about

Nobody has to answer about themselves. These are about the job and the crew.

1. When somebody on a crew is going through a rough stretch, how do you usually find out? Who notices first, and what did you actually see?
2. What would stop you from using something like this? Say it plainly, because if the answer is that you do not believe the phone part, that is worth knowing.
3. If somebody on this job needed a number tonight, would they know where to find one?

Close it out

The QR code goes to the app. It is free, there is nothing to sign up for, and it works on a phone with no service once it has loaded.

If tonight is bad for anybody, 988 is the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline. Call or text, any hour.

And that is it. Let us get to work.