All of this is to say: Everybody cares. All eyes are on the issue.<\/p>\n
As Johnathan Davis, a professor at the University of Iowa\u2019s College of Public Health, put it: \u201cThe construction industry has had a phenomenal response to this problem, and the awareness, the destigmatization, and the support programs are important parts of that response.\u201d Indeed, it has never been easier for a construction worker in distress to get help.<\/p>\n
Yet the crisis of the distressed construction worker persists, in part because, according to interviews with dozens of workers, the industry itself produces the suffering. And, so far, it has done more to treat it than to prevent it. The focus now, Davis said, needs to be on \u201cupstream solutions.\u201d So, not only helping workers once they hit their breaking points, but also addressing the conditions that bring them there in the first place.<\/p>\n
The same day Osborne, who lives in Kensington<\/a>, was at the parking garage, Marianne Wolfe was meeting with the workers in their union halls.<\/p>\n Wolfe is the managed care supervisor for ATAP, an employee assistance program that provides mental health and substance use services for organized labor. After a tragedy like the parking garage collapse, part of her job is to lead workers through critical incident stress debriefing, a structured, therapist-led conversation meant to help people process the trauma they have just experienced.<\/p>\n In this case, that meant sitting with workers who had witnessed the collapse and were still trying to make sense of it.<\/p>\n \u201cThey were just trying to wrap their heads around what took place,\u201d Wolfe said. \u201cSurvivor\u2019s guilt. It was a \u2018Why wasn\u2019t it me?\u2019 type of thing.\u201d<\/p>\n Trauma, Wolfe said, \u201cis a very tricky thing.\u201d It does not always arrive when expected. It can surface weeks or years later. That is why she expected ATAP to keep receiving calls about the collapse for at least several months. If so, those calls will come into an office that is already busy.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re a high-volume call center,\u201d Wolfe said. <\/p>\n Workers reach out to ATAP when they need help and don\u2019t know where to turn. They call ATAP\u2019s 24-hour emergency hotline when they are desperate, sometimes actively suicidal, and an ATAP employee quickly connects them to the right level of support, whether that is outpatient counseling, substance use treatment, or immediate inpatient care.<\/p>\n For years, Wolfe said, most of the calls coming into ATAP were about substance use that was exacerbated, in part, by wear and tear from demanding physical labor.<\/p>\n \u201cWe were still in the opioid epidemic,\u201d she said. \u201cNow we are in what we\u2019re calling a mental health epidemic.\u201d She attributed the shift to years of education and anti-stigma work that made it easier for workers to ask for help.<\/p>\n Some workers call because they are anxious. Some call to discuss family or work-life balance issues. Sometimes they call because they cannot sleep. Their reasons run the gamut, but they all lead back to a simple truth: \u201cBeing a construction worker isn\u2019t an easy job,\u201d Wolfe said.<\/p>\n Layoffs and financial instability are par for the course. The hours are grueling. Some work seven days a week. There is hardly any time to see family. Left unaddressed, those pressures can pile up until a worker feels helpless, or hopeless, or, in Anthony Zecca\u2019s case, both.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ll be honest with you,\u201d Zecca, who lives in Fairless Hills, said in April. \u201cI didn\u2019t want to live anymore.\u201d<\/p>\n He was describing how low things had gotten the previous December. His marriage was on the brink of collapse. His father-in-law had warned him that if he couldn\u2019t get his temper under control, he was going to lose his family. He had been having anger issues ever since he got out of prison in 2023, after serving four years for possession of a firearm. \u201cI had a very hard time adjusting,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n At Christmas, Zecca got so angry that he kicked over the tree and broke his toe. He had to get surgery and could not work for six weeks. But the real wake-up call was his daughter\u2019s reaction that night.<\/p>\n \u201cI saw how terrified she was of me, and I just broke down in tears,\u201d he said. \u201cI couldn\u2019t do it anymore.\u201d<\/p>\n Zecca, 41, called ATAP the next day and spoke to Wolfe. \u201cI told her I\u2019m having a lot of problems at home,\u201d he recalled. \u201cI said I\u2019m really depressed. I\u2019m not doing good.\u201d<\/p>\n Wolfe got to work on Zecca\u2019s behalf immediately. She got him into anger management and found him a therapist and a psychiatrist, whom he now sees every month. She helped his 8-year-old son who has autism, too, by connecting him with a behavioral psychologist. Zecca ended up calling ATAP so frequently that Wolfe gave him her personal cell phone number.<\/p>\n Life has been much better for Zecca ever since he reached out to ATAP. He and his wife still fight sometimes, mostly about his hours. He is away from 4 a.m. until 7 p.m. every day. But they have not had any major blowouts since Christmas. His psychiatrist put him on Wellbutrin, which Zecca says helps with both his depression and his ADHD. He uses his therapy sessions to work through the different stressors in his life.<\/p>\n Zecca still has many sleepless nights and considers himself an \u201canxiety-ridden person.\u201d And the construction industry remains his biggest stressor. He wakes up every day worried he will be laid off and out of work for the next month. \u201cIt really wears on me,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Unable to make peace with the industry\u2019s uncertainty, Zecca is trying to change his circumstances.<\/p>\n \u201cI just want a steady job where I don\u2019t have to worry about being laid off,\u201d he said. He is tired of the stress on the job, the demanding timelines, and the endless hours. He is hardly alone.<\/p>\n John Sobetsky, 35, was among the workers who gathered in the Wissahickon for the Greater Philadelphia Construction Hike for Hope. For him, the cause is personal: Sobetsky survived a suicide attempt in high school and is now active in the industry\u2019s mental health efforts. He also knows firsthand how the pressures of construction can overwhelm the rest of a person\u2019s life.<\/p>\n The former technician and concrete mixer-turned-business development manager said his life is much more manageable ever since he traded the grind and churn of construction work for a 9-to-5.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s almost night and day,\u201d he said. \u201cI don\u2019t have those deadlines weighing on me. I have freedom. I have flexibility.\u201d <\/p>\n Three years ago, Sobetsky, who lives in Royersford, was managing a construction project that was such a \u201ccomplete cluster from beginning to end. \u2026 I wasn\u2019t sleeping. I wasn\u2019t eating,\u201d Sobetsky recalled. \u201cMy anxiety was out of control.\u201d<\/p>\n Eventually, it affected his ability to do his job. \u201cI was missing wire runs,\u201d he said. \u201cI was spending way too much time on tasks that should have taken me half the time because I was just mentally out of it.\u201d It got so bad that his boss asked him if he was OK. That, experts say, is often how distress shows up on the job.<\/p>\n \u201cWarning signs often masquerade as performance issues,\u201d said Sonya Bohmann, executive director of the Construction Industry Alliance for Suicide Prevention. \u201cIt\u2019s things like not showing up for work on time anymore. It\u2019s things like jumping to conflict when you\u2019re usually the person who\u2019s really the steady Eddie.\u201d<\/p>\n Those sorts of behavioral changes are opportunities for bosses and supervisors to check in and point workers to available services. But, according to Bohmann, culture frequently gets in the way.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s hard to say I\u2019m going to therapy because people will look at you like you\u2019re weak or selfish,\u201d she said, \u201cand you never want someone to think that you\u2019re not fit for duty under the hard hat because then they don\u2019t want you on their crew.\u201d <\/p>\n That fear stopped Zecca from seeing the free mental health counselor at his union hall. \u201cI didn\u2019t want a higher-up to see me go in and out of there and think I was a head case,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n According to Sobetsky, until the culture changes, even the best-intentioned services are nothing more than a \u201ccheckbox.\u201d Because when a boss or superintendent treats leaving 45 minutes early on a Tuesday to see a therapist as a problem, the help exists only on paper. \u201cThen you don\u2019t really offer it,\u201d Sobetsky said, \u201cbecause I can\u2019t use it.\u201d<\/p>\n To Bohmann, that is where the work has to move next: from checking the box to creating what she calls a \u201cculture of care,\u201d built on the understanding that the way the industry functions actually affects workers\u2019 mental health.<\/p>\n That\u2019s not just her hunch. It is what new research from professor Davis and the Center for Construction Research and Training (known by its former acronym, CPWR) suggests. Davis conducted an unpublished study that he says shows the presence of family and paid leave policies correlated with lower rates of suicide for construction workers.<\/p>\n \u201cI believe it,\u201d Zecca said when told about the study\u2019s findings. The implications could not be clearer.<\/p>\n As Davis said: \u201cIf you as an employer, you as a contractor, you as a union, are interested in lowering the rate of suicide \u2026 these are the type of benefits that you should be working into your programs.\u201d<\/p>\n One upstream, preventive solution the industry so desperately needs? It already exists. It is called PTO.<\/p>\n Jason Scholl, the owner of LK Miller, based in Ambler<\/a>, recently transitioned all of his workers from hourly to salaried wages. He gives them Friday afternoons off in the summer and generally tries to create a culture where his team feels safe. \u201cI try to give them every tool in my toolbox to help them handle the rigors of what they\u2019re doing on a day-to-day,\u201d Scholl said.<\/p>\n There are concerned bosses, too. Ones who take decisive action, like Mary Pat Geppert, who runs Geppert Bros., the demolition contractor that cleaned up the site of the deadly January 2025 plane crash in Northeast Philadelphia<\/a>. The work was horrifying, Geppert said. Debris and human remains were spread across a 12-block area. Geppert\u2019s workers would not even bring their boots home because of what they walked through. She knew they needed help, so she brought in Buddy Osborne and gave everyone the morning off to talk about what they had seen. She bought them new boots, too. And reminded them of one of her favorite sayings: \u201cIt\u2019s OK to not be OK.\u201d<\/p>\n But it\u2019s what Geppert does not do that she believes makes the biggest difference to her workers\u2019 mental health. She does not lay people off. Or at least she tries very hard not to. Even when Geppert Bros. does not have a contract, she keeps her guys working in the company\u2019s own yard. \u201cThat\u2019s our secret sauce,\u201d she said. \u201cWe don\u2019t let our guys go back to the hall.\u201d<\/p>\n What Geppert Bros. has figured out is what Davis hopes the industry can move toward: steadier, more long-term employment. Such big conceptual changes, like reconfiguring benefits packages and contracts to increase stability, might take more time, but Davis says the industry is well-suited to address these problems.<\/p>\n Zecca is not waiting for those changes to arrive. For more than a year, he has been trying to land a full-time job with Energy Transfer, an oil and gas company headquartered in Texas. The job would involve maintaining the company\u2019s pipelines in Pennsylvania. Instead of starting over with new bosses, crews, and equipment every few months, he would work with the same team on the same project.<\/p>\n It is his dream job. Not because of the work itself or the money. Because it is steady. He wears the company\u2019s navy-and-white hat every day for good luck.<\/p>\n \u201cI just need something with more consistency,\u201d he said one evening in May.<\/p>\n Two days later, he was laid off.<\/p>\n You are not alone<\/p>\n If you or someone you know may be considering suicide, help is available:<\/p>\n \tThe 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline<\/a>\u00a0offers help in more than 150 languages. Call or text 988.\u00a0En Espa\u00f1ol, marca al 1-888-628-9454. If you’re\u00a0deaf or hard of hearing,\u00a0call 1-800-799-4889.![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/1790073023_317_circle_outline_footer_light_theme.png\"\/)
<\/p>\n
\n\tThe Philadelphia Suicide and Crisis Center<\/a>\u00a0offers guidance and assessment about depression, self harm, hopelessness, anger, addiction, and relationship problems, at 215-686-4420.
\n\tVeterans Crisis Chat<\/a>\u00a0is available at 1-800-273-8255 or by text at 838255.
\n\tThe Trevor Project<\/a>\u00a0offers crisis support to LGBTQ\u00a0youth. Call 1-866-488-7386, text START to 678678, or start a\u00a0chat<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Listen to article \u2022\u00a00:00 min When Buddy Osborne\u2019s phone rings, it\u2019s because something has gone wrong. An accident.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":291458,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[120888,69,71,70],"class_list":["post-291457","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-philadelphia","tag-construction-industry-mental-health-crisis","tag-philadelphia","tag-philadelphia-headlines","tag-philadelphia-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/291457","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=291457"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/291457\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/291458"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=291457"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=291457"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=291457"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}