Can you believe that the holidays are upon us? Healthtek has so much to be thankful for this year and much of this is due in large part, because of you. But others in our communities are suffering and it's time we talk about a silent crisis that we can no longer ignore.
Every 11 minutes, someone in America dies by suicide. That's the equivalent of a fully-loaded commercial jetliner crashing every single day with no survivors, no headlines, and no national mourning period.
Just let that sink in for a moment.
While we're planning holiday gatherings and year-end celebrations, 132 people today will take their own lives. Tomorrow, another 132. And the day after that, another 132. By the time you finish reading this newsletter, statistically, someone has died.
This isn't a comfortable topic for a November newsletter or for the holidays. But comfort has never saved lives, courage has.
As we approach 2026, we're witnessing a perfect storm of despair: skyrocketing living costs, an uncertain labor market, deteriorating health conditions, and the mounting pressure of another holiday season where many will choose between paying rent or buying gifts. The strain is real. The hopelessness is palpable. And for too many, the burden feels unbearable.
But here's what I know with absolute certainty: every single one of those 132 daily deaths is preventable.
This month, we're spotlighting organizations like LivWell Partners who are on the front lines of this crisis, armed with education, technology, and creative interventions that are literally saving lives. We're also issuing a challenge to healthcare providers and insurance companies: you can—and must—do more.
Because here's the truth—suicide doesn't discriminate. It touches families in every community, employees in every industry, and people at every income level. And if we're going to turn this tide, it's going to take all of us.
This holiday season, let's give the most important gift of all: hope.
With urgency and purpose, Yon Hardisty
In this issue:
The Jetliner
Nobody's Talking About
Spotlight
Understanding Lung Cancer
Hard Hats
And Heavy Hearts
When Jingle Bells
Become Warning Bells
Watch This Webinar
Bullying: It Doesn't End on the Playground
Watch this pre-recorded webinar of Marco Ansaldo, a Wellness & Compliance Advisor, who dives into how bullying doesn't end on the playground.
Bullying isn’t just something that happens on playgrounds or in childhood. It shows up in classrooms, workplaces, and online communities, and while the forms may change, the impact remains serious. Bullying damages confidence, affects mental and physical health, and can follow someone throughout life. Understanding what bullying looks like, why it occurs, and how to respond is essential to creating safe, respectful environments.
132 Daily Departures. Zero Arrivals. Why Suicide's Death Toll Demands Our Immediate Attention
Imagine if every single day, a commercial airliner carrying 132 passengers crashed with no survivors. The FAA would ground every plane. Congress would hold emergency hearings. Cable news would cover it 24/7. The nation would be in mourning.
Yet that's exactly what's happening with suicide in America—and we're collectively shrugging our shoulders.
Every 11 minutes, someone completes suicide. In 2022, over 48,000 Americans died by suicide, making it the 11th leading cause of death in the United States. Working-age adults (25-64) account for the majority of these deaths—people in their prime, contributing to their families, their communities, their workplaces.
But here's the part that should terrify and motivate us in equal measure: for every suicide death, there are approximately 25 attempts. That means roughly 1.2 million suicide attempts happen annually in the U.S. In your organization right now, someone is silently struggling.
The Hidden Cost of Silence
The American Foundation for Suicide Prevention estimates that each suicide death costs employers approximately $1.3 million in direct and indirect costs—lost productivity, increased healthcare expenses, recruitment and training of replacements, and the immeasurable psychological impact on coworkers who are left asking, "Could I have done something?"
But let's be brutally honest: we're not just talking about spreadsheets and budget line items. We're talking about the coworker who won't return emails anymore. The supervisor whose desk is now empty. The maintenance worker whose tools sit unused. The accountant whose chair remains vacant during the holidays.
We're talking about human beings whose absence creates a void that can never be filled.
The Dependencies That Drive Despair
Suicide isn't caused by a single factor—it's a convergence of circumstances that overwhelm someone's capacity to cope:
Financial strain: With inflation hitting household budgets hard and living costs outpacing wage growth, financial desperation is at an all-time high
Job insecurity: Layoffs, automation fears, and an uncertain labor market create constant anxiety
Social isolation: Despite being more "connected" than ever, loneliness has reached epidemic proportions
Substance abuse: Alcohol and drug dependencies often mask underlying mental health crises
Physical health issues: Chronic pain and illness significantly increase suicide risk
Access to lethal means: Particularly in industries like construction, where workers have ready access to dangerous tools and heights
Why This Holiday Season Is Different (And More Dangerous)
As we barrel toward 2026, the mental health landscape looks particularly bleak:
Economic pressure: Many families face the reality of choosing between heating their homes and buying holiday gifts
Pandemic aftermath: We're still processing collective trauma while pretending everything's "back to normal"
Health crisis: America's population is dealing with unprecedented levels of chronic disease and mental health conditions
Holiday expectations: Social media amplifies the gap between picture-perfect celebrations and people's actual circumstances
The holidays, traditionally framed as "the most wonderful time of the year," are actually one of the most dangerous periods for those struggling with suicidal ideation. The pressure to appear joyful, the financial burden of gift-giving, the loneliness amplified by family-centered messaging—it all compounds.
The Statistic That Should Give Us Hope
Here's the breakthrough: suicide prevention programs have been shown to reduce attempt rates by up to 79% when properly implemented.
Read that again. Seventy-nine percent.
That jetliner doesn't have to crash. We have the technology, the training, and the tools to prevent these tragedies. What we've lacked is the collective will to treat this as the five-alarm crisis it actually is.
Organizations like LivWell Partners are proving that comprehensive, evidence-based interventions work. But they can't do it alone. Healthcare providers, insurance companies, employers, and communities must all step up.
Because 132 people today are counting on us—even if they don't know it yet.
Don't Miss!
Wellness Wednesday's
Where
Twitch
When
Every Wednesday at 9 AM PT
Connect
Online (Twitch)
With Counselor
Bev
Join us at 9:00 A.M. PT for Wellness Wednesday, where we help individuals cultivate mindfulness, relaxation, and focus. It's free to join, and we encourage everyone to offer this opportunity to your clients.
Lung cancer begins when healthy cells in the lungs start growing uncontrollably, forming a mass called a tumor. The lungs are vital organs that supply oxygen to the body and remove carbon dioxide. When cancer develops, it can interfere with this process, making breathing more difficult and affecting overall health.
Why the Construction Industry Is Ground Zero for Suicide—And What LivWell Partners Is Doing About It
If you think construction workers are tough enough to handle anything, you're right about the first part and catastrophically wrong about the second.
The construction industry has one of the highest suicide rates of any profession in America. These are men and women who build our homes, our hospitals, our highways—and they're dying by suicide at alarming rates.
The statistics are staggering:
Construction workers die by suicide at a rate nearly four times higher than the national average
In construction, suicide claims more lives than all workplace accidents combined
Male construction workers face particularly elevated risk, with suicide rates significantly higher than other male-dominated industries
Why Construction? The Perfect Storm of Risk Factors
The construction industry creates a unique convergence of suicide risk factors:
Physical Demands: Chronic pain from years of physical labor often leads to opioid use and dependency, which dramatically increases suicide risk.
Job Insecurity: Project-based employment means constant uncertainty. When the job ends, so does the paycheck—and often, the health insurance.
Cultural Stigma: Construction culture traditionally reinforces "tough it out" masculinity. Asking for help is perceived as weakness. Showing emotion is discouraged. This creates an environment where workers suffer in silence.
Access to Lethal Means: Construction sites provide ready access to heights, heavy equipment, and other lethal means, reducing the time between impulse and action.
Economic Volatility: Construction is often the first industry hit during economic downturns and the last to recover.
Isolation: Despite working in teams, many construction workers feel profoundly isolated, lacking the social connections that buffer against suicide risk.
The Holiday Construction Slowdown: A Hidden Danger Period
November through January brings an additional risk: seasonal slowdowns. Projects pause. Hours get cut. Workers face reduced income exactly when holiday expenses peak. The combination of financial stress, forced downtime (which increases rumination), and holiday pressure creates a dangerous window.
And here's the cruel irony: during this slower period, workers finally have time to address their mental health—but they've also lost the employer-provided insurance that would help them do it.
Enter LivWell Partners: Building Mental Health Infrastructure
While most workplace wellness programs treat mental health as an afterthought—a yoga class here, a meditation app there—LivWell Partners has developed something radically different: the LivWell StayWell program, a comprehensive suicide prevention intervention specifically designed for the construction industry.
Founded by Kaitlin Daeges, LivWell Partners understands that construction workers don't need another generic "wellness webinar." They need interventions that speak their language, respect their culture, and meet them where they are—literally, on the job site.
The LivWell StayWell Framework: Seven Actions That Save Lives
Action 1: Leadership Suicide Prevention Workshops
90-minute training sessions for business owners, board members, executives, and supervisors. These aren't your typical corporate training sessions—they're intensive, evidence-based workshops that teach leaders to recognize warning signs, conduct interventions, and create psychologically safe environments. Certified trainers deliver QPR (Question, Persuade, Refer) Construction-specific training, Mental Health First Aid, and crisis response protocols.
Action 2: Courageous Conversations
Keynote presentations that break through the stigma barrier. These aren't sanitized corporate talks—they're raw, honest conversations that give permission for vulnerability. When a respected industry voice stands up and says, "I've struggled too," it creates cultural permission for others to seek help.
Action 3: Organization-Wide Suicide Prevention Training
Extending the training beyond leadership to every worker on the payroll. Because the carpenter's apprentice needs to know how to help his journeyman just as much as the project manager needs to recognize warning signs in his crew.
Action 4: Wellness Champion Cultivation
Creating peer support networks through trained wellness champions—workers who receive specialized training to become mental health first responders within their organizations. This peer-to-peer model works because construction workers are more likely to confide in a fellow tradesperson than a distant HR representative. The cultivation process includes custom art team-building activities that create lasting bonds and shared experiences.
Action 5: Custom Technology Integration powered by Healthtek
Here's where innovation meets intervention. LivWell Partners, in partnership with Healthtek Inc., deploys Hope—an AI-powered mental health support platform that provides 24/7/365 access to resources, crisis intervention, and guided support.
Meet Hope: Your 3 AM Lifeline
Construction workers don't have mental health crises during business hours. They have them at 2 AM when they can't sleep because the mortgage is overdue. At 3 AM when the physical pain is unbearable and they're contemplating whether another pill will help or end it all. At 4 AM when the loneliness feels crushing.
Hope is there. Every hour. Every day. Every language (26 languages, to be precise).
Hope doesn't judge. Hope doesn't have office hours. Hope doesn't require insurance pre-authorization. Hope is a guided chatbot that walks workers through immediate crisis support, connects them to resources, and provides evidence-based interventions when they need them most.
The Hope platform integrates with Healthtek's Hub technology and +Health Challenges, creating a comprehensive ecosystem that addresses both mental and physical wellness. Because you can't separate a construction worker's torn rotator cuff from their depression, their chronic back pain from their substance use, their physical limitations from their sense of purpose.
Action 6: LivWell WorkWell with Dr. Theresa Skaar
Sustainability is the challenge with most mental health initiatives—they launch with fanfare and fade within months. Dr. Theresa Skaar, a Ph.D. in Social Psychology, certified in Mind-Body Medicine and Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction, provides ongoing wellness partnership that keeps the momentum alive. Her "science-meets-soul" approach blends research-backed interventions with compassionate, real-world application.
Action 7: HR & Leadership Support Membership
Because HR teams and leaders need support too. Monthly 60-minute virtual sessions, quarterly in-depth workshops, real-time consultation access for crisis situations, and a confidential support line ensure that those tasked with supporting others aren't left to struggle alone.
The Technology That Makes It Scalable
Traditional mental health interventions don't scale. You can't put a therapist on every construction site. You can't staff a crisis line for every worker in every time zone.
But you can deploy technology that's always available, culturally competent, and immediately accessible.
The Hope platform, powered by Healthtek's infrastructure, provides:
Immediate crisis intervention with connections to 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline
Resource navigation helping workers find local, affordable mental health services
Educational content delivered in digestible, construction-relevant formats
Progress tracking allowing workers to monitor their own mental health journey
Anonymous story sharing reducing isolation by showing workers they're not alone
Admin dashboards providing aggregate data (never individual-level) to help organizations understand utilization and outcomes
Why This Matters Beyond Construction
While LivWell Partners focuses on construction, the model is universally applicable. Every industry has workers struggling silently. Every organization has employees who need help but don't know how to ask for it.
The LivWell StayWell program proves that comprehensive, industry-specific, technology-enabled suicide prevention isn't just possible—it's effective. Organizations implementing the full seven-action framework report:
90%+ of participants demonstrating increased knowledge of suicide warning signs
86%+ reporting increased confidence in intervention
76%+ showing reduced stigma around mental health
40%+ documenting that they sought help or encouraged colleagues to access resources
These aren't just statistics. These are lives saved. Families kept intact. Workers who make it home to see another sunrise.
This holiday season, while construction sites slow down and workers face financial strain and isolation, programs like LivWell StayWell provide the scaffolding—pun intended—that keeps people safe.
Because construction workers build our world. The least we can do is help them stay in it.
When Jingle Bells Become Warning Bells
Why the "most wonderful time of the year" is actually the most dangerous—and how to make it through
Every December, we participate in an elaborate fiction, that the holidays are universally magical and joyful.
Meanwhile, someone just checked their bank account and realized they can't afford both rent and Christmas gifts. A construction worker on seasonal layoff is calculating whether he can keep the heat on through January.
Welcome to the holiday paradox—where the season we've marketed as joyful becomes, for millions, a pressure cooker of despair.
The Perfect Storm of 2025/2026
This particular holiday season brings a dangerous convergence:
The Price That Won't Come Down: Families still pay 20-30% more for basics than three years ago. Consumer debt increases 6% during holidays. The math is brutal: medical bills or gifts? Rent or holiday travel? Heat or meals?
The Exhaustion Economy: We're entering the holidays already depleted—pandemic-fatigued, economically-anxious, dealing with unprecedented levels of chronic disease and mental health conditions. The season demands we suddenly perform cheerfulness for weeks.
The Instagram Illusion: Perfect trees, perfect families, perfect celebrations flood every feed. Your messy, financially-strained reality can't compete. Knowing those posts are curated doesn't stop the comparison or the shame.
The Loneliness Amplifier: "Family togetherness" messaging is everywhere. For those who've lost loved ones, live far from family, or whose families cause pain rather than comfort, this doesn't inspire warmth—it amplifies isolation.
The Gratitude Trap: Being told to "be thankful" when you're struggling financially or emotionally isn't inspiring—it's invalidating.
The Danger Timeline
Suicide rates don't spike on Christmas Day. The actual high-risk periods:
Late November: Financial anxiety peaks calculating holiday costs and facing unaffordable expectations.
Early December: Performance pressure peaks. Struggling people feel immense pressure to "fake it" through parties and gatherings.
Late December: The gap between expectations and reality becomes undeniable. Credit card bills arrive. "I've ruined the holidays" thoughts intensify.
Early January: "New year, new you" messaging makes stuck people feel worse. Holiday bills come due. Seasonal employment ends. Winter intensifies isolation.
Warning Signs You Can't Ignore
Social withdrawal from usual holiday gatherings
Increased substance use beyond normal holiday drinking
Giving away meaningful possessions disguised as "decluttering"
Unusual goodbye calls reflecting on memories
Financial desperation beyond normal stress
Talking about being a burden to others
Sudden calmness after visible depression (may indicate they've made a decision)
What You Can Do Right Now
Check In Meaningfully:
Replace "How are you?" with "The holidays can be really tough. How are you actually doing?" LivWell Partners often asks, "Hey, can I walk alongside you this holiday season?"
Reduce Financial Pressure:
Suggest no-gift pacts. Propose free activities. Say out loud: "I'm not doing gifts this year." Give others permission.
Be Present for the Isolated:
Invite that coworker who seems alone. Check on neighbors. Reach out to friends who've experienced loss. Ask more than once—people struggling often decline initially.
Ask Directly:
If someone doesn't seem right, ask: "Are you thinking about suicide?" The question doesn't plant the idea—it opens the door to help.
Share Resources:
Normalize mental health support. "I've been using this Hope platform and it's helpful" gives others permission to seek help. Another option might be, "Hey, I know of a really great mental health support program, can I introduce them to you?"
If You're in Leadership
Acknowledge reality. Stop sending "magical season" emails without acknowledging difficulty.
Provide real flexibility. Make holiday events optional. Don't require explanations for PTO.
Eliminate financial pressure. Skip expensive parties. Give actual bonuses instead.
Train leadership. Managers need scripts for checking in and permission to ask hard questions.
The Technology Bridge
When traditional support systems shut down for holidays, technology fills the gap. The Hope platform provides crisis intervention at 2 AM, resource navigation when offices are closed, anonymous support, and multilingual help in 26 languages.
It's not replacing professional help—it's a bridge to keep people safe until help is accessible.
Reframing Success
What if we measured holiday success not by decorations, gifts, or cheerfulness, but by how many people made it through to January?
Because January will come. Bills get figured out. Pressure eases. The sun shines longer.
But only if we make it through. Only if we hold on. Only if we ask for help or offer it.
The Gift That Actually Matters
This holiday season, let's give the gift that saves lives—not perfect moments, but real support when it matters most.
Let's check in. Let's reduce pressure. Let's acknowledge difficulty. Let's have uncomfortable conversations. Let's normalize struggling instead of treating it as failure.
Because nobody should die while the world is singing about joy.
The holidays will be messy, complicated, expensive, exhausting. But they don't have to be fatal.
Stay. Fight. Reach out. Hold on. January is coming. And you deserve to see it. This holiday season, I want to wish you all our very best. If you want to discuss your program or any type of new technology project coming your way—please reach out.
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