Worker Wellness Blog thru May 24, 2026

Dr John Gaal
4 hours ago
2 min read

This week’s edition of our Worker Wellness blog takes a look at how Memorial Day came about to be a national holiday—to yet another overdose death of an ex-NFLer to the 4^th Wave of our nation’s opioids crisis known as Polysubstances—to more stories on the pros and cons of AI.

Focal Point: This week, I ask that you take 20 minutes to listen to the NASSCO Safety podcast below.[1] It features Harry Miller, CSP. He is the longtime VP of Safety and Labor Relations at SAK. Harry and I crossed paths decades ago when he just started recruiting for McBride & Sons Homes. I proudly watched him progress in his career: earning BS and MS degrees, and then his certification as a safety professional. Harry is well respected, and I am pleased to call him my friend and colleague!

For those contractors and/or unions thinking about starting a Peer Support program, I think Harry does a good job explaining WHY the construction industry needs to do more to psychologically protect our workers. None of this happens without the support of upper management AND buy-in from those in the trenches. This is EXACTLY why the STL Building Trades Wellness Coalition was created. David Scott, James Pursell, and I do NOT have all the answers. Our goal is to bring people together to solve these challenging issues together! As I have said many times in the recent past, “This is a We problem…not a ME problem.”

To take a deeper dive into Harry’s topic, please consider attending our next event below.[2]

Source: [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x8EnX-no0so

[2] https://www.stlbtwellness.org/event-details/q3-coalition-collaborative-meeting

Roots of Memorial Day

NFL: Another Fentanyl-related OD Death

What Peers Do: LEAN

H Miller on Construction Suicides

Layoffs & Trauma

The Cost of Burnout