August 24, 2023 • 11 mins
Friday, September 8th, from 11:30 'til 12:30, in Wichita's Old Town Square, you're invited to "Stand Up for Suicide Prevention" during a special event is to raise awareness about Opioid Abuse and Mental Health in construction during the National Suicide Prevention Month. Aaron Maxwell from Bel Aire Recovery Center tells us all about it. www.ksconstructionsafetynetwork.com; belairerecovery.com
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:01):
Welcome to Wichita on Weekend, theweekly public affairs program from iHeartRadio Wichita one
O two one the Bull Channel ninetysix three and seven three And Welcome to
Wichita Weekend. Our guest is AaronMaxwell. He works for the bell Air
Recovery Center here in Wichita. AndAaron, you're here for a very special
(00:22):
reason because we've got an event comingup in Old Town Square on September eighth.
That's a Friday tell us about it. Yeah, So we're going to
do a co hosted event between AGCof Kansas and the Kansas Construction Safety Network,
and we're going to do a standup to help present promote mental health
awareness and construction and opioid abuse awarenessin the construction industry. Right, so
(00:48):
it's kind of a stand up forsuicide prevention, you might say, yeah,
yeah, yeah, definitely okay,And this event is going to be
happening Friday, September eighth, fromeleven thirty till twelve thirty, just an
hour but an Old Town Square.This is the second year you guys have
had this event, and you hadpretty good response last year for your inaugural
stand up. Now this year it'sgoing to be a continuation of what you
(01:12):
did last year. You're going tobuild on what you had, but kind
of describe what goes on in thathour, if you would please. Yeah,
so a couple of things. We'llhave several speakers downtown that are going
to get up and share their experience, and the mayor is going to be
there to talk about this. Soin the construction industry, there's some really
(01:34):
staggering statistics about workers in that industry. So they workers in the construction industry
die at about twice the national averageof suicide. Wow. And then they
die about four times the national averageof drug overdose. And that's why this
is such a big important topic inthe construction world. Yeah, we talked
(01:57):
a little bit before we got startedwith this interview that, Yeah, it's
particularly a problem for the construction industry. So you've got those in construction like
the American General Contractors of America anda GC of Kansas that are one of
the co sponsors of this event.It's really a huge problem in construction and
(02:19):
we were talking why that might be, Aaron, could you lay some reasons
out for us. Yeah, there'sa few reasons that we in the construction
industry believe contribute to this one isthere's a lot of injuries that go along
with working in construction. I wasin the roofing industry for quite a few
years, and I've got a goodexample of that. I was on a
job site one day with some guysand there were four guys on this roof.
(02:44):
All four of them were brothers,so they all grew up together.
They all knew each other really well. They all looked out for each other.
I watched one of them fall offof a roof into the bed of
a dump truck, and his brother'sreactions were to start giving him a time.
They helped him up out of thetruck. He had a dislocated shoulder.
(03:05):
They all grabbed a hold of him, popped his shoulder back into place,
and he went right back to work. And that's not an uncommon thing
to happen in construction. Nobody wantsto be the weak link on the crew,
so they'll work through injury, workthrough any kind of problem they might
have, and then down the roadthat can lead to other problems. So
nobody wants to look weak. Nobodywants to look like they can't tough their
(03:28):
way through it, right, Soabsolutely it's kind of a mindset that's common
among a lot of mail construction workers. I guess you could say, yeah,
absolutely, yeah, And then whatthat can lead to is the more
injuries like that occur, the longeryou're in the industry, the more likely
you are to have some sort ofeither acute or a nagging injury that may
(03:49):
lead you to sink medical advice andget put on some sort of pain medication.
And a lot of times, onceyou get put on pain medication,
if you keep working through the problem, you don't address it with physical therapy
or any other kind of modalities.You have to start taking more and more
pain meds to do the same amountof work. And the next thing you
(04:09):
know, you're hooked on the painmedication. And then when the prescription runs
out, a lot of times theseguys what they do is they go to
the street and try to find thesame relief from street narcotics. Oh boy,
and the downward spiral, yeah,absolutely kind of begins, I suppose
in several cases. So yeah,wow, So no big secret why this
(04:31):
is important to the folks in theconstruction industry. And in case you just
joined us, it is happening FridaySeptember eighth, from eleven thirty till twelve
thirty. We'd like to call ita suicide prevention stand up taking care of
those who build for us and thepartners involved are the Associated General Contractors of
Kansas and the Kansas Construction Safety Network. Now, Aaron, we introduced you
(04:58):
as a person that works for bellyA Recovery Center. Yep, so bell
Air Recovery is also one of thepartners in this. Yeah, we are.
So. I just went to workfor bell Air Recovery Center within the
last year, and I have aconstruction background. That's what I've done for
most of my most of my careeroff and on, and when I went
to work for bell A Recovery Center, I knew that part of my job
(05:18):
to be out in the community andmeet with community partners. I wanted to
take this back to the construction industrybecause I've seen so many people throughout my
career that our construction workers suffer fromdrug abuse problems. I knew that it
was going to be a major issuegoing forward, and I just wanted to
spread awareness of treatment options so thereare good treatment options available in this area
(05:43):
throughout the state for people that maybehaving a problem with substance use, and
a lot more construction companies are onboard with this. Now. We've we've
had a lot of participation in KansasConstruction Safety Network so far this year on
some other events we did. Weactually hosted a NARCAN training a few months
back and that was very well attended. Excuse me, I didn't mean to
(06:08):
interrupt you, but the NARCAN trainingtell us what narc Yes, Okay,
so if somebody has overdosed with anopioid, Narcan is the drug that anybody
can administer that will bring them outof that overdose or we'll to bring them
out of that overdose. Okay.So what we're working to do is we're
working to get most of the constructioncompanies around area, at least around the
(06:30):
area, at least those that arewilling to start keeping narcan on their job
sites, in their job trailers,uh in their in their safety equipment so
in case they do have a workerthat happens the overdose on the job site,
they'll have somebody available to administer narcan. And we had really good buy
in from the from the construction communitywhen we hosted that event a couple of
(06:51):
months ago. Well, you couldsave a life. Absolutely, he really
could, and so like information aboutstuff like that, information about treatment options
narcan on every job site. Thoseare some of the things we're going to
be talking about, definitely at theSuicide Prevention stand up taking care of those
(07:11):
who build for us at September eighth. That's a Friday, from eleven thirty
till twelve thirty. So maybe youcould if you're got a lunch hour on
Friday, you could plan your lunchhour around this. Either go after or
go to the stand up before yougo to lunch, but spend a time.
It's spend an hour, It's verywell spent. You're gonna learn a
lot and possibly save some lives ondown the line. Definitely. Yeah,
(07:35):
So we invite everybody who's listening tojoin us. That is Friday, September
eighth, eleven thirty till twelve thirtyOld Town Square in Wichita. Aaron Maxwell's
our guest today on which weekend,Aaron, you shared a little bit about
how you kind of got involved withthese folks, here, share a little
(07:56):
bit more. I'm sure you've gotsome stories, but you've also seen some
success stories, right, Yeah,definitely, So one of the one of
the things that I've gone through inmy life is I'm a person in long
term recovery, which which for memeans I went to treatment when i was
twenty nine years old. Yeah,and I've been able to maintain my sobriety
(08:18):
since then. And since that time, I've I've always kind of worked behind
the scenes to spread the word thatpeople people do recover and recovery is possible,
and I just have never I've neverdone it for a job until recently.
I've always I've always worked either inthe computer software or the construction industry,
so I've I've got a lot ofexperience seeing people overcome overcome their addiction,
(08:43):
and a lot of the companies thatare involved in the Kansas Construction Safety
Network I love to give people thatare in recovery a second chance, and
they hire based on that, notnecessarily seeking them out, but always trying
to give somebody an opportunity when theyneed one. And that's that's something that
(09:03):
is really important when you're trying toget back on your feet, is that
you can find steady, stable employmentway to make a living. And definitely
some of our partners in this industryhave focused on giving people second chances.
There's a lot of skilled people outthere that may have just struggled with something,
lost some jobs, maybe maybe havesome criminal convictions that might exclude them
(09:24):
from other types of employment. Andif they can get a second chance and
get back on their feet, theycan really be successful. That's awesome.
That is awesome. So if youwork in construction, if you own a
construction company, if you know somebodythat's involved in construction, you know the
kind of the dangers associated with thatindustry because it's a it's a high risk
(09:46):
occupation. The risk of physical harmis pretty high there and therefore the risk
for possible drug abuse on down theline follows. And man, oh man,
if you can and just be apart of this and understand as a
construction professional how important it is tokeep everybody safe, definitely, So please
(10:09):
join us Friday, September eighth,eleven thirty till twelve thirty. Make it
part of your lunch hour plans onthat Friday and come down to Old Town
Square in Wichitall and be a partof the suicide Prevention stand up. It's
sponsored by Associated General Contractors of Americaand the Kansas Chapter along with the Kansas
(10:31):
Construction Safety Network. We're gonna learnmore about how to take care of those
who build for us, so pleasebe a part of it. Aaron Maxwell,
it's great to have you on inthe next All Weekend Studios today.
A little little short on my caffeinetoday, so I've been stumbling all over
my tongue and I appreciate your patientswith your tongue tied interviewer. But thanks
(10:56):
for being with us, and anybodywho's listening today, put this on your
calendar or tell a friend about it, and by all means, come out
and you can help save a life. Okay, thanks for being with us,
Aaron Maxwell and me. I appreciateit. Thank you for listening to
which It on weekend a service ofiHeart Radio stations one O two one,
The Bowl, Channel nine six three, alwe Oh seven three and ninety seven
(11:20):
nine B ninety eight to listen everySunday or Whichit on a weekend
Welcome to Wichita on Weekend, theweekly public affairs program from iHeartRadio Wichita one
O two one the Bull Channel ninetysix three and seven three And Welcome to
Wichita Weekend. Our guest is AaronMaxwell. He works for the bell Air
Recovery Center here in Wichita. AndAaron, you're here for a very special
(00:22):
reason because we've got an event comingup in Old Town Square on September eighth.
That's a Friday tell us about it. Yeah, So we're going to
do a co hosted event between AGCof Kansas and the Kansas Construction Safety Network,
and we're going to do a standup to help present promote mental health
awareness and construction and opioid abuse awarenessin the construction industry. Right, so
(00:48):
it's kind of a stand up forsuicide prevention, you might say, yeah,
yeah, yeah, definitely okay,And this event is going to be
happening Friday, September eighth, fromeleven thirty till twelve thirty, just an
hour but an Old Town Square.This is the second year you guys have
had this event, and you hadpretty good response last year for your inaugural
stand up. Now this year it'sgoing to be a continuation of what you
(01:12):
did last year. You're going tobuild on what you had, but kind
of describe what goes on in thathour, if you would please. Yeah,
so a couple of things. We'llhave several speakers downtown that are going
to get up and share their experience, and the mayor is going to be
there to talk about this. Soin the construction industry, there's some really
(01:34):
staggering statistics about workers in that industry. So they workers in the construction industry
die at about twice the national averageof suicide. Wow. And then they
die about four times the national averageof drug overdose. And that's why this
is such a big important topic inthe construction world. Yeah, we talked
(01:57):
a little bit before we got startedwith this interview that, Yeah, it's
particularly a problem for the construction industry. So you've got those in construction like
the American General Contractors of America anda GC of Kansas that are one of
the co sponsors of this event.It's really a huge problem in construction and
(02:19):
we were talking why that might be, Aaron, could you lay some reasons
out for us. Yeah, there'sa few reasons that we in the construction
industry believe contribute to this one isthere's a lot of injuries that go along
with working in construction. I wasin the roofing industry for quite a few
years, and I've got a goodexample of that. I was on a
job site one day with some guysand there were four guys on this roof.
(02:44):
All four of them were brothers,so they all grew up together.
They all knew each other really well. They all looked out for each other.
I watched one of them fall offof a roof into the bed of
a dump truck, and his brother'sreactions were to start giving him a time.
They helped him up out of thetruck. He had a dislocated shoulder.
(03:05):
They all grabbed a hold of him, popped his shoulder back into place,
and he went right back to work. And that's not an uncommon thing
to happen in construction. Nobody wantsto be the weak link on the crew,
so they'll work through injury, workthrough any kind of problem they might
have, and then down the roadthat can lead to other problems. So
nobody wants to look weak. Nobodywants to look like they can't tough their
(03:28):
way through it, right, Soabsolutely it's kind of a mindset that's common
among a lot of mail construction workers. I guess you could say, yeah,
absolutely, yeah, And then whatthat can lead to is the more
injuries like that occur, the longeryou're in the industry, the more likely
you are to have some sort ofeither acute or a nagging injury that may
(03:49):
lead you to sink medical advice andget put on some sort of pain medication.
And a lot of times, onceyou get put on pain medication,
if you keep working through the problem, you don't address it with physical therapy
or any other kind of modalities.You have to start taking more and more
pain meds to do the same amountof work. And the next thing you
(04:09):
know, you're hooked on the painmedication. And then when the prescription runs
out, a lot of times theseguys what they do is they go to
the street and try to find thesame relief from street narcotics. Oh boy,
and the downward spiral, yeah,absolutely kind of begins, I suppose
in several cases. So yeah,wow, So no big secret why this
(04:31):
is important to the folks in theconstruction industry. And in case you just
joined us, it is happening FridaySeptember eighth, from eleven thirty till twelve
thirty. We'd like to call ita suicide prevention stand up taking care of
those who build for us and thepartners involved are the Associated General Contractors of
Kansas and the Kansas Construction Safety Network. Now, Aaron, we introduced you
(04:58):
as a person that works for bellyA Recovery Center. Yep, so bell
Air Recovery is also one of thepartners in this. Yeah, we are.
So. I just went to workfor bell Air Recovery Center within the
last year, and I have aconstruction background. That's what I've done for
most of my most of my careeroff and on, and when I went
to work for bell A Recovery Center, I knew that part of my job
(05:18):
to be out in the community andmeet with community partners. I wanted to
take this back to the construction industrybecause I've seen so many people throughout my
career that our construction workers suffer fromdrug abuse problems. I knew that it
was going to be a major issuegoing forward, and I just wanted to
spread awareness of treatment options so thereare good treatment options available in this area
(05:43):
throughout the state for people that maybehaving a problem with substance use, and
a lot more construction companies are onboard with this. Now. We've we've
had a lot of participation in KansasConstruction Safety Network so far this year on
some other events we did. Weactually hosted a NARCAN training a few months
back and that was very well attended. Excuse me, I didn't mean to
(06:08):
interrupt you, but the NARCAN trainingtell us what narc Yes, Okay,
so if somebody has overdosed with anopioid, Narcan is the drug that anybody
can administer that will bring them outof that overdose or we'll to bring them
out of that overdose. Okay.So what we're working to do is we're
working to get most of the constructioncompanies around area, at least around the
(06:30):
area, at least those that arewilling to start keeping narcan on their job
sites, in their job trailers,uh in their in their safety equipment so
in case they do have a workerthat happens the overdose on the job site,
they'll have somebody available to administer narcan. And we had really good buy
in from the from the construction communitywhen we hosted that event a couple of
(06:51):
months ago. Well, you couldsave a life. Absolutely, he really
could, and so like information aboutstuff like that, information about treatment options
narcan on every job site. Thoseare some of the things we're going to
be talking about, definitely at theSuicide Prevention stand up taking care of those
(07:11):
who build for us at September eighth. That's a Friday, from eleven thirty
till twelve thirty. So maybe youcould if you're got a lunch hour on
Friday, you could plan your lunchhour around this. Either go after or
go to the stand up before yougo to lunch, but spend a time.
It's spend an hour, It's verywell spent. You're gonna learn a
lot and possibly save some lives ondown the line. Definitely. Yeah,
(07:35):
So we invite everybody who's listening tojoin us. That is Friday, September
eighth, eleven thirty till twelve thirtyOld Town Square in Wichita. Aaron Maxwell's
our guest today on which weekend,Aaron, you shared a little bit about
how you kind of got involved withthese folks, here, share a little
(07:56):
bit more. I'm sure you've gotsome stories, but you've also seen some
success stories, right, Yeah,definitely, So one of the one of
the things that I've gone through inmy life is I'm a person in long
term recovery, which which for memeans I went to treatment when i was
twenty nine years old. Yeah,and I've been able to maintain my sobriety
(08:18):
since then. And since that time, I've I've always kind of worked behind
the scenes to spread the word thatpeople people do recover and recovery is possible,
and I just have never I've neverdone it for a job until recently.
I've always I've always worked either inthe computer software or the construction industry,
so I've I've got a lot ofexperience seeing people overcome overcome their addiction,
(08:43):
and a lot of the companies thatare involved in the Kansas Construction Safety
Network I love to give people thatare in recovery a second chance, and
they hire based on that, notnecessarily seeking them out, but always trying
to give somebody an opportunity when theyneed one. And that's that's something that
(09:03):
is really important when you're trying toget back on your feet, is that
you can find steady, stable employmentway to make a living. And definitely
some of our partners in this industryhave focused on giving people second chances.
There's a lot of skilled people outthere that may have just struggled with something,
lost some jobs, maybe maybe havesome criminal convictions that might exclude them
(09:24):
from other types of employment. Andif they can get a second chance and
get back on their feet, theycan really be successful. That's awesome.
That is awesome. So if youwork in construction, if you own a
construction company, if you know somebodythat's involved in construction, you know the
kind of the dangers associated with thatindustry because it's a it's a high risk
(09:46):
occupation. The risk of physical harmis pretty high there and therefore the risk
for possible drug abuse on down theline follows. And man, oh man,
if you can and just be apart of this and understand as a
construction professional how important it is tokeep everybody safe, definitely, So please
(10:09):
join us Friday, September eighth,eleven thirty till twelve thirty. Make it
part of your lunch hour plans onthat Friday and come down to Old Town
Square in Wichitall and be a partof the suicide Prevention stand up. It's
sponsored by Associated General Contractors of Americaand the Kansas Chapter along with the Kansas
(10:31):
Construction Safety Network. We're gonna learnmore about how to take care of those
who build for us, so pleasebe a part of it. Aaron Maxwell,
it's great to have you on inthe next All Weekend Studios today.
A little little short on my caffeinetoday, so I've been stumbling all over
my tongue and I appreciate your patientswith your tongue tied interviewer. But thanks
(10:56):
for being with us, and anybodywho's listening today, put this on your
calendar or tell a friend about it, and by all means, come out
and you can help save a life. Okay, thanks for being with us,
Aaron Maxwell and me. I appreciateit. Thank you for listening to
which It on weekend a service ofiHeart Radio stations one O two one,
The Bowl, Channel nine six three, alwe Oh seven three and ninety seven
(11:20):
nine B ninety eight to listen everySunday or Whichit on a weekend
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