Suicide remains one of the most significant health and safety challenges facing the construction industry. For nearly two decades, MATES has worked alongside construction workers in Australia and New Zealand to reduce suicide through a peer-led model built on trust, connection, and practical support.
Now, that model is being adapted for North America through the MATES North America Pilot, launched in partnership with Quanta Services and supported by an independent evaluation led by A-G Associates.
We spoke with Shallon Yi, Executive Director of the MATES North America Pilot, about the origins of the program, why construction is a critical focus area, and what the future may hold for suicide prevention across the industry.
Q: How did you join the team at MATES North America?
A: I joined MATES in Construction Australia in early 2025 to lead the adaptation of the Australian model for North America. My initial role focused on designing the pilot framework and determining how we could effectively test the model in a North American context.
As planning progressed, it became clear that we wanted to replicate the nonprofit structure that has been central to the success of MATES in Australia and New Zealand. A significant part of my role became establishing a nonprofit corporation in the United States and creating the foundations for long-term program delivery. As the project evolved from planning to implementation, I stepped into my current role leading the pilot program.
Q: Can you describe the success of MATES in Australia and what led to the MATES North America Pilot?
A: MATES Australia has demonstrated that suicide prevention can be embedded into the way the construction industry operates.
The program began in Queensland in 2008 in response to high suicide rates among construction workers. Since then, it has grown into a nationally recognized model supported by industry, unions, employers, and workers themselves.
MATES is more than a training program. It creates networks of support across workplaces and provides ongoing assistance to workers long after the initial training has been delivered.
Since its launch, MATES has delivered General Awareness Training to more than 350,000 workers across Australia. The program also trains volunteer peer supporters known as Connectors, with approximately 35,000 Connectors currently active throughout the industry.
Research has shown that the model improves mental health and suicide prevention literacy, increases people's willingness to offer support to colleagues, and helps reduce stigma around mental health conversations. Much of that success stems from the program's peer-led approach, which recognizes that workers are often more comfortable turning to trusted colleagues than following traditional pathways through management or human resources.
The success of the Australian model attracted the attention of Quanta Services, which saw an opportunity to bring a proven suicide prevention system to the North American construction workforce. That partnership led to the development of the MATES North America Pilot.
Q: Can you describe what peer-led engagement looks like in the MATES suicide prevention model?
A: The foundation of MATES is that it is delivered by people who understand the industry. A peer model only works if it reflects the workforce it is designed to support.
Before delivering training, our team spends time on site understanding the organization's culture, leadership, safety practices, and existing mental health supports. By the time training begins, relationships and trust have already started to develop.
Our General Awareness Talk is specifically tailored to the construction industry. The examples, data, and conversations are grounded in workers' everyday experiences rather than generic mental health messaging.
The first objective is to help workers understand the reality of suicide and mental distress within their industry and workforce. We create awareness that even if someone has not personally experienced suicide, it is highly likely that people around them have.
A key difference in the MATES model is that we focus on help offering rather than only help seeking. While many traditional approaches teach people how to ask for help, we recognize that reaching out during a crisis can be incredibly difficult. Instead, we equip workers to recognize signs of distress, start conversations, and offer support to their peers.
The next layer of the model is the Connector Program, which provides additional training to volunteers who want to play a more active role in supporting colleagues. Connectors learn how to respond when someone is struggling and how to connect them with appropriate community or professional support.
The result is a network of trusted peers who can guide workers toward help rather than leaving them to navigate difficult situations alone.
Q: Why was it important to focus this effort on the construction industry?
A: Suicide rates within the construction industry are significantly higher than those of the general population, and there are several industry-specific factors that contribute to that risk.
Construction work often involves long hours, physical demands, workplace injuries, financial uncertainty, and periods of job insecurity. Many workers move between projects and locations, creating additional stressors both professionally and personally.
The industry also faces challenges related to injury management and opioid use. Workers who experience injuries may receive pain medication without access to the long-term rehabilitation needed for full recovery. In some cases, that can contribute to dependency and substance misuse, both of which are recognized as risk factors for suicide.
At the same time, construction has significant protective strengths. It is a highly relationship-based industry where workers rely on one another every day to stay safe. Looking out for colleagues is already part of the culture.
MATES builds on those existing strengths by extending the industry's safety mindset to mental health and suicide prevention. Rather than introducing a completely new way of thinking, we're helping workers apply the same principles of awareness, intervention, and care that they already use to protect one another physically.
Q: Are individuals or organizations still able to partner with MATES North America?
A: Absolutely.
While our six pilot sites remain the focus of our current evaluation efforts, we're actively engaging with organizations across the industry as the program continues to grow.
We want to understand what companies are already doing, what challenges they're facing, and how the MATES model might complement existing mental health and suicide prevention initiatives. We recognize that no single approach is right for every organization, and our goal is to help industry leaders determine whether MATES is the right fit for their workforce.
Partnerships are about much more than funding. They include collaboration, workforce engagement, implementation support, and helping workers access the resources already available to them through employers, healthcare providers, employee assistance programs, and unions.
We also want to ensure the program continues to reflect the diversity of the construction industry. That means building relationships with employers, contractors, labor organizations, and industry groups that can help shape and strengthen the model over time.
Q: Is there a timeline for the project to move from pilot to a phased rollout across North America?
A: There is, but we're taking a deliberately evidence-informed approach before scaling the program.
While we have strong confidence in the model based on its success in Australia and New Zealand, we have also adapted it for the North American construction industry and healthcare system. It's important that we evaluate those adaptations carefully before expanding.
Throughout the pilot, we're delivering the program across six Quanta operating companies representing a variety of workforce environments. We're also delivering training in Spanish for the first time, allowing us to evaluate both language and cultural adaptations.
Alongside implementation, we're conducting an independent evaluation and closely monitoring outcomes. As the evidence demonstrates that the adapted model is achieving the intended impact, we'll gain the confidence needed to move toward broader expansion.
Q: Are there aspects of the MATES model that translate beyond the construction industry?
A: Absolutely. While MATES is delivered through workplaces and addresses many workplace-specific risk factors, people don't exist solely within their jobs. They are also members of families, communities, sporting clubs, and social networks.
What we've learned from Australia and New Zealand is that the skills and conversations introduced through MATES often extend far beyond the workplace. Workers use those skills to support friends, family members, and people in their wider communities.
That's one of the most encouraging aspects of the model. By creating networks of safety at work, we're also helping to strengthen networks of support throughout the broader community.
At the same time, the MATES model tends to grow organically. Workers move between projects and employers, and they often become advocates for the program wherever they go. As that momentum builds, we'll continue assessing where the need is greatest and where we have the capacity to expand.
Our goal is that when the evaluation confirms we're ready to scale, we'll also be positioned to meet that demand.
Q: Could you explain some of the expertise you, your teammates, and your board members bring to the pilot?
A: We're a relatively small team, but we bring together expertise across suicide prevention, program implementation, workforce development, governance, and nonprofit leadership.
Katie Deal, who is based in the United States, played a critical role during the adaptation phase by building relationships across both the construction industry and the broader suicide prevention sector. Her background spans suicide prevention and violence prevention.
Our Program Operations Manager, Wykisha Thomas-McKinney, also comes from the U.S. suicide prevention field and now leads day-to-day implementation across our pilot sites.
To ensure the program remained grounded in construction industry realities, we also drew heavily on decades of MATES experience in Australia and New Zealand and embedded experienced field practitioners within the project team during development.
We're further supported by a highly experienced Board of Directors that includes leadership from Quanta Services alongside board members from Australia and New Zealand with expertise in construction, labor relations, corporate governance, and suicide prevention.
Together, that combination of operational, industry, and governance expertise provides a strong foundation as we move from pilot implementation toward long-term growth.
Q: What excites you most about the partnership with A-G Associates and the evaluation process?
A: One of the things that excites me most is the collaborative approach we've taken to designing the evaluation.
Rather than prescribing a framework from the outset, we invited prospective evaluators to show us how they would approach the challenge. That process allowed us to identify a partner whose thinking closely aligned with the realities of both the construction industry and the MATES model.
What stood out about A-G Associates was its understanding that this is a complex, multi-layered intervention operating in dynamic workplace environments. Evaluating a program like this requires flexibility, thoughtful data collection, and an appreciation for the practical realities of engaging busy workforces.
Throughout the process, there has been a genuine, shared enthusiasm about the insights the evaluation can generate and how those findings can strengthen suicide prevention efforts across the industry.
For us, the evaluation isn't simply about determining whether the program works. It's about understanding how it works, how it can be improved, and how those lessons can be shared to benefit the broader construction sector. That commitment to learning and continuous improvement has made the partnership incredibly valuable.
This Q+A has been edited for clarity and length.
Learn More
Learn more about A-G Associates’ research, data and evaluation capabilities. For more information about MATES North America, click here.