MIRECC / CoE

Rocky Mountain Short Takes on Suicide Prevention: Suicide Prevention in the Construction Industry with Sally Spencer-Thomas PhD

14 June 2017

The Bridging the Divide Conference is an annual event in Denver put on by Suicide Prevention Coalition of Colorado and this year we caught up with the very busy, very energetic Sally Spencer-Thomas. Lately, Sally has taken up suicide prevention work in the construction industry. This was not a population I was familiar with but as you'll find in listening to this podcast the overlap between this industry and Veterans is surprisingly large.

Sally Spencer-Thomas is a clinical psychologist, inspirational international speaker and an impact entrepreneur. Dr. Spencer-Thomas was moved to work in suicide prevention after her younger brother, a Denver entrepreneur, died of suicide after a difficult battle with bipolar condition. Known nationally and internationally as an innovator in social change, Spencer-Thomas has helped start up multiple large-scale, gap filling efforts in mental health including the award-winning campaign Man Therapy and was a recent invited speaker at the White House. Her goal is to elevate the conversation and make suicide prevention a health and safety priority in our schools, workplaces and communities.

• Learn more about Sally Spencer-Thomas
• Construction Industry Alliance for Suicide Prevention
• Construction Working Minds
• CDC Study puts Construction/Extraction as #2 industry for highest suicide rates and #1 for highest numbers
• Sally has her own podcast called "Hope Illuminated: Suicide Prevention Stories, Science and Strategy with Dr. Sally". Her first episode is an interview with Thomas Joiner on men's mental health titled - Why are men so lonely? Preventing Deaths of Despair with Dr. Thomas Joiner
• Man Therapy
• The song for this podcast, Veterans Day, was written by Luke Halpin, performed by Luke Halpin and Steef Sealy and produced by Denver Film and Digital.

The podcast is approximately 16 minutes long.

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Categories: Suicide Prevention