In May, Chris Carlough was appointed the first-ever SMART director of wellness and mental health support, taking the next step in a long career dedicated to enhancing the well-being of SMART members across the United States and Canada.
Carlough has spearheaded numerous programs aimed at meeting the unique needs of union workers and industry partners, demonstrating his passion for advocating for mental health awareness and support.
Carlough, standing with microphone.
One such initiative, started in 2013, was the SMART MAP (Members Assistance Program), which focuses attention on a variety of mental health issues, such as substance abuse and suicidal ideations, through various awareness trainings — locating top-tier mental health resources and building a network of compassionate union members and other peers who offer support and guidance to fellow members and their families. Another, more recent program has been the training and distribution of naloxone throughout local unions in the United States and Canada in an effort to reduce opioid overdose deaths.
“I strongly believe that empathy and vulnerability through shared experiences can reduce the stigma of mental health issues and will build a culture of support, caring and solidarity throughout our organization, where members and their families feel safe seeking help for mental health issues without fear of judgment or reprisal,” said Carlough, who has been active in his recovery from drug and alcohol addiction for more than 20 years.
By continuing to be a vocal proponent of policies and initiatives that prioritize members’ well-being, Carlough aims to advance the conversation around mental health in the workplace. His goal is to help ensure that SMART members have the resources and support they need to maintain their mental and emotional welfare so that they can spend more time in comfort and happiness — on and off the job.
The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) reports that construction is second only to mining when it comes to suicide rates in American professions. According to a 2020 survey, 83% of construction workers said they had struggled with mental health issues. And data from the National Survey on Drug Use conducted by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Administration found that 12% of construction workers have an alcohol abuse disorder, compared with the national average of 7.5%.
For all those reasons — and as part of our union’s core values of solidarity and safety — SMART and the Sheet Metal Occupational Health Institute Trust (SMOHIT) started the SMART Member Assistance Program (MAP) approximately 10 years ago.
“SMART MAP is a program that focuses on mental health,” explained SMART Director of Wellness and Mental Health Support Chris Carlough. “We do some awareness training around … anxiety, depression or substance use, suicide prevention, things like that. And we talk about resources, we help our local unions find resources for their members. And on the back end, we develop and train peer mentors to help support all the members and families that are going through crisis.”
Watch Chris Carlough and Ben Cort discuss union mental health programs like SMART MAP and Union EAP.
By training union workers to be peer mentors for their fellow brothers and sisters, the program aims to raise awareness, reduce the stigma surrounding mental wellness and create a self-sustaining mental health support system within our union, helping to ensure members have somebody to lean on. Not only that – the three-hour SMART MAP sessions provide members with an avenue to open up about their own experiences.
“One of the things that really strikes me is how our members really want to talk about this,” Carlough pointed out.
In addition to SMART MAP, members also have access to an employee assistance program called Union EAP, founded by SMART MAP consultant and subject matter expert Ben Cort.
“[Union EAP] is based on a premise that our members are asked to do way too much when they’re in a time of crisis: You make a phone call, and you basically end up getting a list back of a bunch of different places that you can call if you want to,” Cort said. “The idea that we had with this was much more of a concierge kind of mental health service. You call, you speak to a clinician, that clinician does a full assessment, understands what’s going on, and then builds an individualized and personal plan for you and for your family. And then we see you through all of it.”
Alongside Carlough – and as part of his work with the SMOHIT helpline, which provides a resource for members to call when they need assistance – Cort has been taking phone calls from members for the last five or six years, helping direct them to resources and work their way through mental health crises. He said that aspect of his profession is “one of the coolest and most rewarding things in my entire career.”
The work done by Carlough and Cort – as well as other professionals throughout SMART and SMOHIT – is all part of fostering a union-wide environment that helps SMART members feel comfortable talking about mental health and seeking help when they need it. The more we can provide those union mental health programs, Carlough maintained, the better we will be able to keep our fellow union workers healthy and safe.
“We don’t necessarily want to talk about it on the jobsite, but when we’re given a safe space to be able to talk a little bit about it, we have our members really opening up on how they’re feeling. How they’re dealing with divorce, for example, what they’re struggling with — whether it’s mental health, substance use,” he said. “We’ve had members express that they have suicidal ideations — and we [can support] them. We have these moments in these trainings [when] I really feel like our union is light years ahead of other building trade unions in this.”
For Chris Carlough, SMART Member Assistance Program (MAP) coordinator, the mission to help improve union workers’ mental health is personal.
“I’ve been working with the SMART MAP program for probably about 10 years or so,” Carlough said during an interview with SMART News. “It’s important to me because I’m a guy that’s in recovery from drugs and alcohol, and I see the importance of talking about some of the issues – because people don’t like to talk about mental health.”
Watch Chris Carlough discuss SMART MAP and mental health.
The SMART MAP offers mental health awareness and action training, enabling SMART mentors to provide support for members struggling with substance use disorder or mental health issues. The trainings are led by Carlough, who is working to build a compassionate, peer-based support system for members and their families. Carlough brings his own experience in recovery to reach a vulnerable population with a “tough-guy” mentality.
“These trainings start with construction workers who are rough and tumble, who push some of those emotions down,” Carlough said. “‘Rub some dirt on it, pull yourself up.’ And at the end of these trainings, we have members saying they’re going to start doing therapy…and starting to work on some self-care stuff.”
“A construction worker in this sense is more vulnerable to suicide than they are to the dangers of an actual construction site,” Carlough said. “When we saw that, we realized we needed to talk about this more.”
Through the SMART MAP program, Carlough strives to increase dialogue, reduce the stigma, and get people the resources they need.
“We’ve been able to pivot over the last few years to peer training,” Carlough said, “which is getting to our rank and file, people on the jobsite or in the shop, and really empowering them to go out there and be peer advocates for their members and getting people to be comfortable to have uncomfortable conversations.”
This important mental health work is being recognized. SMART and SMOHIT received the union award for Mental Health Visionary at the inaugural Construction Working Minds Summit in 2022. In addition, Local 33’s (northern Ohio) Eli Baccus won a Mental Health Champion award in 2022, and Local 18’s (Wisconsin) Craig Holzem is the winner of the same award for 2023.
This work is ongoing and relies on the involvement of all SMART members. Those interested in participating can reach out to their business manager, who can then contact SMOHIT.
