Latest / Voices For Suicide Prevention / Workplace Mental Health That Works.  How AEP Ohio Brought Suicide Prevention to Field Crews

Transcript

Workplace Mental Health That Works.  How AEP Ohio Brought Suicide Prevention to Field Crews · Voices For Suicide Prevention

• 0:04
  SPEAKER_02: Welcome everyone to this episode of Voices for Suicide Prevention.
• 0:08
  SPEAKER_02: As we like to say, our conversations are real talk, real honest, real life.
• 0:12
  SPEAKER_00: I'm Scott Light.
• 0:13
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm Stephanie Booker.
• 0:15
  SPEAKER_00: The Ohio Suicide Prevention Foundation, AEP Ohio, and Worth PR recently collaborated on a workplace suicide prevention and mental wellness pilot program, focusing on reducing stigma, encouraging open conversations about mental wellness, and helping employees understand where to turn for support, including company resources and of course 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline.
• 0:39
  SPEAKER_00: Joining us are Laura Ahrenshield, AEP Ohio Vice President of Customer Experience and a driving force behind this partnership with OSPF and Worth, and John Griffith, Assistant Vice President with Worth PR.
• 0:52
  SPEAKER_02: Welcome to you both.
• 0:53
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you.
• 0:54
  SPEAKER_02: Thanks for having us.
• 0:54
  SPEAKER_02: So this pilot placed mental health directly with the broader conversation about a couple of things, workplace safety and employee well-being.
• 1:03
  SPEAKER_02: So Laura, let's start with you.
• 1:05
  SPEAKER_02: How did that partnership come together?
• 1:07
  SPEAKER_02: Talk about maybe the origins of this partnership and how the whole communication started.
• 1:11
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, I was well aware of the fact that Worth had been partnering with the Ohio Suicide Prevention Foundation on a workplace pilot program.
• 1:19
  SPEAKER_03: And I also was aware that reaching working class men is a particular challenge for suicide prevention and mental health resources in general.
• 1:28
  SPEAKER_03: John and the Worth team reached out to me and asked if we might be willing to partner.
• 1:31
  SPEAKER_03: And it was a no-brainer, of course, happy to partner, especially because in our world at AEP Ohio, we have about 1,300 employees, and about 1,200 of them are in our operations department.
• 1:44
  SPEAKER_03: Those numbers are probably directionally right.
• 1:46
  SPEAKER_03: And in our operations department, what that really means is there are folks that are like our line workers in the field or engineers, and they're dispersed all across the state.
• 1:54
  SPEAKER_03: They're often in their vehicles, they're often climbing poles or going underground to restore power.
• 1:59
  SPEAKER_03: And that means that they're very challenging to reach.
• 2:01
  SPEAKER_03: It's really easy to send an email.
• 2:03
  SPEAKER_03: It's really hard to get to people in the field.
• 2:04
  SPEAKER_03: So when they reached out, it was an obvious choice to try to help.
• 2:08
  SPEAKER_02: John, when you hear a friend and client go, Well, this effort's a no-brainer.
• 2:14
  SPEAKER_02: That's got to bring a smile to your face out of the gate.
• 2:16
  SPEAKER_01: Absolutely.
• 2:17
  SPEAKER_01: And we were so appreciative.
• 2:18
  SPEAKER_01: We we had uh we had worked on a pilot with a couple other companies that were more, you know, worked in the mental health space.
• 2:26
  SPEAKER_01: And so this bringing in AEP Ohio was just a new industry that we could break into and one that really, I think, could use support in mental health.
• 2:37
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, you know, you have individuals who were were in isolation, working high-risk jobs, and uh a lot of times, you know, they might not know where to turn.
• 2:46
  SPEAKER_01: And so that's where this program was so important.
• 2:49
  SPEAKER_01: We were so lucky that AEP Ohio said yes.
• 2:53
  SPEAKER_00: And mental health in any setting, whether it's at home with the family, a friend, but certainly at work, it's it's it's a hard thing for people to want to talk about, especially in these environments like AEP Ohio and other places where safety and reliability are a major focus.
• 3:09
  SPEAKER_00: So from the communication side, John, the importance of having AEP Ohio to participate in this pilot program, encouraging their employees and leaders to talk more openly about mental wellness.
• 3:22
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, absolutely.
• 3:23
  SPEAKER_01: And, you know, we find we've we did an extensive research with this project, but I'll go back, I'll give you a little history.
• 3:30
  SPEAKER_01: So in 2024, we, you know, OSPF came to us and said there's a need for this.
• 3:36
  SPEAKER_01: And we were lucky at Worth PR that they decided, you know, Ohio Suicide Prevention Foundation chose us.
• 3:42
  SPEAKER_01: We did extensive research, uh, primary, secondary research focus groups, and identified, just talking to companies across the state, that something like this was needed in their company.
• 3:54
  SPEAKER_01: And so we learned that uh employees really trust their employers.
• 3:58
  SPEAKER_01: And so getting those employers out in front of it, uh, leadership out in front of the messaging was so important.
• 4:05
  SPEAKER_01: I think AEP Ohio did a great job at that.
• 4:08
  SPEAKER_01: We communicated things about, you know, messages about stigma in mental health.
• 4:12
  SPEAKER_01: You know, a lot of times, you know, as a man, I can say men don't talk about mental health.
• 4:17
  SPEAKER_01: And there are a lot of male employees at AEP Ohio, men that, you know, just don't want to talk about this stuff.
• 4:23
  SPEAKER_01: And there were uh leaders, male leaders who stepped up to the plate, put their voice, uh, their stories behind this program uh so and around stigma.
• 4:35
  SPEAKER_01: We we communicated about employee assistant programs that were available at AEP Ohio that provide free counseling services.
• 4:44
  SPEAKER_01: Um we often say uh, you know, some companies don't have an EAP, but it's it's no better if nobody knows that the EAP exists.
• 4:52
  SPEAKER_01: And so communicating about the EAP and how to access it, so crucial.
• 4:59
  SPEAKER_01: Uh communicated other things through leadership uh that include um, you know, what to do when you recognize the signs of mental illness in a in a person.
• 5:10
  SPEAKER_01: And that's, you know, when you're an employee of a company, you just don't know.
• 5:13
  SPEAKER_01: It's one of those things that's maybe viewed as, you know, that's personal, that's outside of work.
• 5:18
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 5:19
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but communicating those things were were important in the program.
• 5:23
  SPEAKER_00: Well, we know there are studies out there um that show how mental wellness does affect the workplace, um, whether that's missed days at work or um, you know, when when someone's trying to take care of a loved one, whether it's not them directly when they're taking care of a loved one and their mental wellness and how that affects a company.
• 5:46
  SPEAKER_00: So, you know, it it all you know feeds into each other.
• 5:50
  SPEAKER_00: It it all it is all part of that and being able to sustain um a growing and and healthy workforce.
• 5:58
  SPEAKER_00: It's not just physical, it's the mental health as well of those employees.
• 6:02
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 6:03
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, when we were going out and talking to businesses about, hey, will you lend your employees to us, will you lend your time to us to implement uh this program, you know, sometimes there has to be a business case.
• 6:15
  SPEAKER_01: And productivity, and you know, we from our research, and you know, it's somewhat common sense, the the better someone's mental health, the more productive they're gonna be.
• 6:25
  SPEAKER_01: Um there's also studies that show that uh businesses in the U.S., when you total it, I mean, we're it's costing businesses in the billions of dollars.
• 6:36
  SPEAKER_01: I saw a study, uh, a hundred billion dollars a year cost uh U.S.
• 6:40
  SPEAKER_01: businesses uh because of mental illness.
• 6:43
  SPEAKER_01: And that's you know, lost productivity, people missing work, um, you know, losing people, having to recruit people because either they die by suicide, unfortunately, or they they just can't work anymore.
• 6:56
  SPEAKER_01: And so uh it just makes total sense that we address this uh in the business world.
• 7:02
  SPEAKER_02: Aaron Powell When you look at, I'm glad you mentioned stats, Stephanie and I look at these numbers a lot too.
• 7:06
  SPEAKER_02: I saw one where depression is the leading cause worldwide of workplace uh lack of productivity, workplace absences.
• 7:16
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, it is there, and those stats are real, and and again, something else we talk about behind every one of those stats is a human being.
• 7:23
  SPEAKER_02: And and so we have to take care of them.
• 7:25
  SPEAKER_02: Uh Laura, let me come to you and ask about this pilot because it combined a lot of things.
• 7:30
  SPEAKER_02: We had you've got leadership training with employee-facing messages and resources shared over a period of eight months.
• 7:37
  SPEAKER_02: Um, walk us through what else was included and how you executed this thing.
• 7:42
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, I mean, a lot of credit to the communications team at AEP Ohio and the Worth team.
• 7:46
  SPEAKER_03: They put together most of the communications assets for us.
• 7:49
  SPEAKER_03: For us, it was really about safety for our crews and our folks in the field.
• 7:56
  SPEAKER_03: The um, I mean, you can appreciate, I'm sure, electricity is extremely dangerous.
• 8:00
  SPEAKER_03: It's always trying to kill itself and everybody in its path.
• 8:03
  SPEAKER_03: And our folks are often out working very, very, very long shifts, 16 plus hour days, especially with some of the very severe weather we've had in Ohio this year.
• 8:12
  SPEAKER_03: And the toll of that is immense.
• 8:14
  SPEAKER_03: And so we want them to be healthy and well mentally, and we also want them to be safe when they're out on the job because mental mental health can certainly play into making maybe not the best safety decisions.
• 8:25
  SPEAKER_03: So we started it.
• 8:27
  SPEAKER_03: John will know more of the specifics, but I believe we started off with a survey where we went out and tried to gauge how much folks understood about the resources available to them.
• 8:37
  SPEAKER_03: Um and then we followed it up with some leadership messages.
• 8:40
  SPEAKER_03: Our leadership team, um, including our president Mark Ryder, who's been around for a while and who really values our folks in the field especially, but also values just making sure that everybody's taking care of one another.
• 8:51
  SPEAKER_03: Like he's not just a leader who's saying that he genuinely believes it.
• 8:53
  SPEAKER_03: So he and the rest of our leadership team, myself included, signed a letter that was mailed to everybody's home, focusing on the importance of um mental health and awareness of the access to these programs.
• 9:04
  SPEAKER_03: And the reason I think, John, jump in here, but I think the reason we decided to send to folks as homes is we thought it'd be one thing if we handed a letter to a line worker in a garage at seven o'clock in the morning and he shoved it in his truck and never looked at it again.
• 9:17
  SPEAKER_03: It's a completely different thing if his wife opens the mail and sees the letter and sees the program.
• 9:22
  SPEAKER_03: And if she recognizes or if someone in their family needs assistance that this program is like we do have an employee assistance program, it is available and we care and we want you to take advantage of it.
• 9:32
  SPEAKER_03: Does that sound right?
• 9:33
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, absolutely.
• 9:33
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, I think that's one of the reasons why we're so one of the many reasons why we were so appreciative of AEP Ohio, because it these aren't it it provided, it challenged us to find different ways to communicate.
• 9:46
  SPEAKER_01: These aren't people that just sit at a computer that we can just email and call it a day.
• 9:51
  SPEAKER_01: We had to diversify our communication efforts.
• 9:54
  SPEAKER_01: And so it was some email, but it was also talking points for supervisors at garages who can read down bullet points and at their morning safety meetings, you know, talk about our messages, uh, home mailers as well, uh, video, uh, written articles on the internet.
• 10:13
  SPEAKER_01: And so um it just strengthened our program to try to reach individuals because if you if you only use one method of communication, you're gonna miss a lot of people.
• 10:24
  SPEAKER_01: And so that was one of our strategies was to just try to find as many ways to reach these individuals as possible, you know, working with the AEP Ohio communication team to identify those ways.
• 10:36
  SPEAKER_01: And I think we were successful.
• 10:38
  SPEAKER_00: One thing that really stood out to me as I was looking at all the different messaging that that you worked together on was those who are in in this inside, if you will, AEP Ohio, including the leaders and employees and their willingness to talk personally about mental health.
• 10:57
  SPEAKER_00: What were some of those messages that employees received during that time that really seemed to resonate and hit home?
• 11:07
  SPEAKER_03: I have to say, you know, for all of the attention on the energy sector right now, and there's a lot, the folks at AEP Ohio are some of the most caring and best humans that I've ever worked with in that they're willing to be vulnerable with one another at all levels.
• 11:24
  SPEAKER_03: And that's not everybody, of course, but we were extremely fortunate that a number of our sort of, I don't know if macho is quite the right word to use here, but strong male leaders within our organization were willing to be extremely vulnerable publicly about some of their experiences.
• 11:42
  SPEAKER_03: So there's two that really popped to mind.
• 11:44
  SPEAKER_03: One is a guy named Josh McQueen.
• 11:46
  SPEAKER_03: He um was our safety director, which meant he was in charge of trying to keep everybody safe.
• 11:50
  SPEAKER_03: He's also a volunteer firefighter, volunteer fire chief in his community, which is a little bit east in eastern Ohio.
• 11:57
  SPEAKER_03: Um, and he just he's like a strong male voice, and he had experienced quite a few challenging things.
• 12:03
  SPEAKER_03: He'd seen a lot of challenging things in his role as a firefighter and was really struggling.
• 12:07
  SPEAKER_03: This was years ago, and decided to reach out for help.
• 12:10
  SPEAKER_03: And he was willing to share that story to show that when you reach out for help, first of all, it's totally okay and right to reach out for help.
• 12:18
  SPEAKER_03: But when you reach out for help, not only do you receive it, but you get better, you get well, and you start to be able to accomplish the things that you want to accomplish and all the rest, like your mental health is no longer the barrier that it might have been.
• 12:30
  SPEAKER_03: Um, and because Josh was willing to share that story, another very strong male leader in our organization, a guy named Dylan Brown, who lives in Chillicothe, um, and leads all of our Central Ohio line workers, he was willing to step forward and tell his own story about how after the birth of his kids, he wasn't getting enough sleep, he was feeling a lot of pressure, and he really was struggling mentally.
• 12:51
  SPEAKER_03: And same, went out, found help, and asked for it.
• 12:55
  SPEAKER_03: And all that he was able to accomplish as a result.
• 12:57
  SPEAKER_03: And I think that the combo of those two stories was really, I hope it was really, really meaningful for our teams.
• 13:03
  SPEAKER_03: Um, we were also really lucky in that the leader of most of the operations team members that we have, a guy named Matt Bennett, who is extremely trustworthy and who also genuinely cares about everybody, um, the teams really just look up to him a lot.
• 13:18
  SPEAKER_03: He's a former line worker himself.
• 13:20
  SPEAKER_03: He comes from West Virginia, he's got a great accent.
• 13:22
  SPEAKER_03: He uh he recorded a video for all the team members, just sort of underscoring the importance.
• 13:26
  SPEAKER_03: And I think the combo of those three, hearing from those three strong male leaders about how important it is to go ask for assistance when you need it, just like you would if you broke your arm or you, you know, fell off a pole, um, made made all the difference for us.
• 13:42
  SPEAKER_03: What do you think, John?
• 13:43
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, it was the most rewarding part of the entire pilot, I think.
• 13:47
  SPEAKER_01: You know, just getting male individuals, especially, you know, women can share their story too, but um, you know, more impactful, especially impactful to AEP Ohio to share their story.
• 13:58
  SPEAKER_01: I'll add, you know, Laura, you know, described the the story so well, but uh AEP Ohio posted on their internet and the articles in total like thousands of views.
• 14:09
  SPEAKER_01: Um and so people were actually you know seeing it, reading it.
• 14:13
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and on top of that, on AEP Ohio's internet, there's a comment, an area where people can comment and seeing you know, other individuals, including men, you know, say back to you know Josh and Dylan, hey, I I I'm inspired.
• 14:30
  SPEAKER_01: Uh this made a difference.
• 14:31
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you for sharing.
• 14:33
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, we we know, I mean that's proof right there that we made a tremendous impact.
• 14:37
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and and that's so rewarding.
• 14:39
  SPEAKER_03: I think one other thing that was kind of cool about our partnership here is that AEP Ohio is a subsidiary company of big AEP.
• 14:45
  SPEAKER_03: I think in Central Ohio everybody recognizes the tower.
• 14:47
  SPEAKER_03: That's cool.
• 14:48
  SPEAKER_03: AEP Ohio is uh is like I always call it like the dispatch to the USA-to-day network, right?
• 14:53
  SPEAKER_03: We're like the local entity and we're based in Gehana.
• 14:55
  SPEAKER_03: But our intranet stories can be picked up by our parent company, which means that across the country, American Electric Power has similar companies to us.
• 15:02
  SPEAKER_03: And in other states, we're in 11 total states.
• 15:05
  SPEAKER_03: Um, across the country, people were seeing these stories.
• 15:08
  SPEAKER_03: So the impact was likely wider than just Ohio, even though we were hyper focused on AEP Ohio and AEP Ohio employees.
• 15:15
  SPEAKER_02: Were there other states that called you and said, well, hey, we want in on this?
• 15:19
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, I heard from a few other, it's a great question.
• 15:22
  SPEAKER_03: I did hear from a few other leaders in other states asking how we went about um whether the first of all, asking whether we were doing a targeted, like, is this intentional?
• 15:32
  SPEAKER_03: Is this like a push?
• 15:33
  SPEAKER_03: Because they didn't see all the other materials.
• 15:35
  SPEAKER_03: They just saw Josh and Dylan's stories.
• 15:37
  SPEAKER_03: And the answer, of course, was yes.
• 15:38
  SPEAKER_03: And they asked what we were doing, and I shared it with them.
• 15:41
  SPEAKER_03: Um, and they were like, oh, that's really interesting.
• 15:42
  SPEAKER_03: Like we've really, we've wondered how to help.
• 15:45
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, I can't overstate how challenging these jobs can be.
• 15:47
  SPEAKER_03: Like very little, very little sleep, often very thankless, often pulled out in the middle of the night away from your family.
• 15:52
  SPEAKER_03: They're often missing holidays, weekends, you know.
• 15:55
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, the electricity goes out.
• 15:56
  SPEAKER_03: It's it's somebody has to go fix that, you know?
• 15:59
  SPEAKER_03: And um, there's severe weather, a whole lot of people have to go fix that.
• 16:02
  SPEAKER_03: And so they're they are grueling jobs.
• 16:04
  SPEAKER_03: And um, and our team's doing really well, but it's it's also it's a lot.
• 16:09
  SPEAKER_03: And so to know that the mental health resources are there and that your leadership team, that your strong male leadership team really wants you to take advantage of those resources, I think was resonant, certainly for us, but I saw I heard from a lot of others across the other states saying we'd like to consider doing something similar.
• 16:26
  SPEAKER_00: Sign them up.
• 16:27
  SPEAKER_00: We're ready.
• 16:28
  SPEAKER_00: I love that.
• 16:30
  SPEAKER_00: So you did get some great feedback.
• 16:32
  SPEAKER_00: Any other feedback from employees before we um talk about specifically on the surveys?
• 16:38
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, I think the feedback was largely for me, what I heard was thank you for the letter because my name was on it.
• 16:44
  SPEAKER_03: And um loved seeing the stories from Dylan and Josh.
• 16:48
  SPEAKER_03: Those were the really big key things.
• 16:51
  SPEAKER_01: This was a six-month program.
• 16:52
  SPEAKER_01: Um, you know, temper expectations, but we we had some movement.
• 16:56
  SPEAKER_01: And Laura mentioned we had a uh pre-pilot survey, survey before to just understand the baseline of uh employees' knowledge on mental health, and then a postpilot survey to measure our success.
• 17:09
  SPEAKER_01: And the most striking statistic to me was the acknowledgement that employees had on AEP Ohio's efforts around mental health, communication, communicate communication around the EAP.
• 17:24
  SPEAKER_01: Uh around 75% said acknowledged, like, yes, our leadership is communicating about this.
• 17:31
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and that goes a long way.
• 17:33
  SPEAKER_01: That was a huge increase from the pre-pilot uh survey.
• 17:37
  SPEAKER_01: And there was also incremental increases um in the EAP usage as well.
• 17:43
  SPEAKER_01: As I mentioned, we communicated significantly around that uh the EAP, that it exists, how to use it, what resources are available.
• 17:53
  SPEAKER_01: I think that's one of the most important things that we communicated about for somebody to, you know, it's one thing to just talk about mental health, but if someone needs assistance, there's uh resources there available that AP uh provides.
• 18:09
  SPEAKER_01: And so there was incremental increases um in the usage, which was uh great to see as well.
• 18:15
  SPEAKER_03: I think the biggest takeaway for me when I looked through all the data, and again, I wasn't, I wish I had been more involved in the day-to-day of it, but I I think that the biggest takeaway for me when I looked at all the data was that the awareness of the programs increased by something like 21%, which is material.
• 18:32
  SPEAKER_03: That's very, very significant for us.
• 18:34
  SPEAKER_03: And um I think that's a win.
• 18:36
  SPEAKER_03: I think if you don't know the programs there, to John's point, if you don't know the problems there, programs there, you can't use it.
• 18:42
  SPEAKER_03: And I want people to know it's there because I want them to use it if they need it.
• 18:46
  SPEAKER_03: Does that make sense?
• 18:47
  SPEAKER_02: It absolutely makes sense.
• 18:49
  SPEAKER_02: And I'm thinking you've got employees who who appreciate their company more and likely uh willing to uh address a mental health challenge if it comes up.
• 19:00
  SPEAKER_02: What CEO in the world doesn't want that?
• 19:04
  SPEAKER_01: Absolutely.
• 19:04
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and you know, I'll just add too you know, this was our third pilot or third pilot partner.
• 19:10
  SPEAKER_01: We had other partners as well that, you know, there was one in particular that had a 60% increase in so we we measured how many times employees reached out for for help uh in the six months prior to uh the pilot program starting, and then during the six months of the pilot, what was the number?
• 19:31
  SPEAKER_01: And it was a 60% increase.
• 19:33
  SPEAKER_01: So, you know, this communication it worked with AEP Ohio, uh, this communication worked with other partners, and you know, our hope is to just and we'll get into it, but uh continue to expand across the state.
• 19:45
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm wondering then those lessons learned.
• 19:48
  SPEAKER_00: Um, what do you think was most effective for you for this pilot program in the messaging and and being able to let people know about how they can access the support?
• 20:00
  SPEAKER_01: There were so many lessons.
• 20:02
  SPEAKER_01: Um, as I mentioned, AEP Ohio, you know, just the nature of the business uh made our program better, you know, trying to, you know, realizing we needed to find additional channels to to communicate to to reach people.
• 20:17
  SPEAKER_01: But we really what was underscored was that it works.
• 20:22
  SPEAKER_01: Um, the data shows that there's value in what we're doing, communicating around mental health.
• 20:27
  SPEAKER_01: You know, employees said it.
• 20:29
  SPEAKER_01: There were um, you know, question-answer responses, fill-in-the-blank uh responses where people, you know, thanked thanked ADP Ohio for uh taking, you know, addressing mental health in the workplace.
• 20:43
  SPEAKER_01: And uh so the program works and you know, there are ways to strengthen it as we move forward.
• 20:49
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, the other thing we learned um storytelling really works.
• 20:52
  SPEAKER_01: It's we didn't really use storytelling in our previous pilot, but we use the voices of real people uh as we've addressed in in this pilot, and I'm so glad that we did.
• 21:04
  SPEAKER_01: You know, we all get you know countless emails where it's just a nameless, you know, communication, and you know, you you get instruction on certain things, but hearing the personal experience from the mouth or the keyboard of a of an individual, there's just something different about that.
• 21:23
  SPEAKER_01: And I'm so glad that we had a couple individuals step up, or multiple more than a couple, but particularly you know, Josh and Dylan step up and share their story because I just think the impact was just far superior than if we were just communicating with an instructional email.
• 21:40
  SPEAKER_01: Sure, sure.
• 21:41
  SPEAKER_03: The storytelling really was the key.
• 21:43
  SPEAKER_03: I it's stories resonate, narrative resonates.
• 21:46
  SPEAKER_03: People want to know what happens next.
• 21:48
  SPEAKER_03: They saw familiar faces, they saw faces they trust and respect.
• 21:52
  SPEAKER_03: And they I think that they walked away.
• 21:54
  SPEAKER_03: My hope is that they walked away thinking, man, if Josh can talk about this, I can talk about it.
• 21:59
  SPEAKER_03: If Dylan can talk Talk about this, I can talk about it.
• 22:01
  SPEAKER_03: Matt really cares about this.
• 22:03
  SPEAKER_03: So I'm gonna, I know it's okay.
• 22:05
  SPEAKER_03: I know it's okay for me to go use this program or, you know, ask for help if I need it.
• 22:09
  SPEAKER_03: And I'll say too, um, well before my my time joining AEP, that the AEP Ohio has a long history of sharing vulnerable stories, you know, of of people trusting one another and being vulnerable.
• 22:21
  SPEAKER_03: And there are other men that work there who've done the same.
• 22:24
  SPEAKER_03: And I'm very grateful to them too for setting the stage to make it safe for everybody to do it.
• 22:28
  SPEAKER_00: Well, now that this pilot program with AEP is over, Laura, I'm just curious how will you be continuing this conversation so that it's not just this one-off time?
• 22:38
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, I think one thing that's really clear is that we need to continue communicating about our employee assistance program in our ongoing communications.
• 22:46
  SPEAKER_03: We have a um quarterly onboarding and we need to make sure we're sharing the information there too.
• 22:50
  SPEAKER_03: We do, but I think the storytelling is really the key.
• 22:53
  SPEAKER_03: So we need to make sure we're continuing to focus on that and um kind of harness the power of narrative.
• 22:59
  SPEAKER_03: I would say the other thing that's clear for me at least is we don't have a post-vention program.
• 23:04
  SPEAKER_03: And um, that's we have had people uh unfortunately die by suicide, members who, you know, team members who work in our garages.
• 23:12
  SPEAKER_03: And um I think that it would be valuable for us to put one of you never obviously like never want that to happen.
• 23:19
  SPEAKER_03: Hope that it doesn't, do everything you can to prevent it.
• 23:22
  SPEAKER_03: But I think having a post-vention plan in place would be very valuable for us so that we're prepared to support our other employees should the worst happen.
• 23:29
  SPEAKER_00: So, for folks who may not know the term post-vention, we've talked about that.
• 23:34
  SPEAKER_00: Um, obviously, Ohio Suicide Prevention Foundation is working on a very robust post-vention uh programming resources to be able to help workplaces, help loved ones, communities after they have lost someone to suicide.
• 23:52
  SPEAKER_00: And specifically in the workplace, I think one of the things that we have for folks, if you'd like to go to our Together Through Grief through the ohiospf.org website, um, we have put together many different resources, some video resources as well about how to support people and then how to also provide some policy and some crisis information ahead of time in case you need something should you experience that type of death within your organization.
• 24:26
  SPEAKER_00: So those types of things, you you don't want these things to happen, of course, but you also want to be able to plan for them so that you can react in an appropriate manner and provide the support that's needed immediately.
• 24:41
  SPEAKER_02: So, John, why don't we wrap up with you?
• 24:43
  SPEAKER_02: And similar to what what Laura was talking about a a few minutes ago, you got a lot of momentum now.
• 24:48
  SPEAKER_01: How do you keep it up with this program?
• 24:50
  SPEAKER_01: Well, we're talking to other companies.
• 24:52
  SPEAKER_01: We want to do more pilots.
• 24:54
  SPEAKER_01: Um, we want to actually implement you know the program beyond a pilot.
• 24:58
  SPEAKER_01: We want to make an impact, you know, behind Ohio Suicide Preventions leadership, which you know came to us and you know said we want to make an impact uh you know across the entire state of Ohio.
• 25:09
  SPEAKER_01: Because, you know, in our research back in 2024, before any of these pilots, you know, started, we looked across the country and there really wasn't much that existed for businesses in terms of resources.
• 25:22
  SPEAKER_01: There was, you know, there are pamphlets, there's tips, you know, there might be a video or two, but in terms of a full-fledged six-month communications program, there was a need.
• 25:33
  SPEAKER_01: And um and so that's why why we started what we did.
• 25:38
  SPEAKER_01: Um, a lot of those programs too, or a lot of the resources were were uh you know created before COVID-19, before people started working remotely at the the levels um in which we are now, and which you know leads to isolation.
• 25:53
  SPEAKER_01: And so there's uh you know, there's just a need.
• 25:56
  SPEAKER_01: Um and Ohio, I think, you know, under the leadership in the state, you know, wants to be a leader in mental health and and provide those resources to to businesses.
• 26:07
  SPEAKER_01: And so basically long-winded answers to saying we want to keep going, we want to work with other businesses eventually.
• 26:14
  SPEAKER_01: We want to just have the resources live somewhere so businesses anywhere, you know, don't necessarily have to work directly with us for six months, but they can download um uh you know the a collection of resources, tailor them for themselves, uh, and and implement you know something for their businesses, for their employees.
• 26:35
  SPEAKER_01: And I think uh, you know, that would go a long way for those businesses, and it would, you know, certainly propel uh Ohio as a leader uh in being proactive on mental health, particularly in the business world.
• 26:52
  SPEAKER_00: Laura and John, thank you so much for being here and helping really to support that mental wellness in your workplace at AEP Ohio and across the state of Ohio and other workplaces.
• 27:03
  SPEAKER_00: We really do appreciate that.
• 27:05
  SPEAKER_00: And to our listeners as well, thank you.
• 27:08
  SPEAKER_00: Because when you listen to our episodes, you break stigmas, you break the barriers, and you care about mental health and saving lives.
• 27:15
  SPEAKER_00: This is Voices for Suicide Prevention, brought to you by the Ohio Suicide Prevention Foundation.