Another Tool in the Toolkit
by Olga Peters, Vermont Business Magazine
Reid Wobby has heard all the reasons why people don’t want to administer naloxone, a medicine used to reverse the effects of an opioid overdose.
“Why should I care?” the audience will ask.
Or…
“They made their choice.”
Or…
“They got themselves into a drug addiction, and they can get themselves out.”
Wobby believes these comments come from a host of life experiences and discomfort.
He responds, “I believe you. But if you go home and someone that you love is laying on the ground and they're showing these signs and symptoms that they're overdosing - I think you would use the Narcan [brand name for naloxone] if you had it in your first aid kit.”
“So let's just get it in everybody's first aid kit, and we can argue about if you're going to use it or not later,” Wobby adds.
Wobby, an employee wellness consultant, has spent almost two years training organizations on naloxone, suicide prevention, and wellness. He partnered with the Associated General Contractors of Vermont (AGC/VT) and Stephanie Busch, injury prevention manager at the state Department of Health, which provides the naloxone. Since late 2023, the Employee Wellness Partnership initiative has distributed naloxone to construction industry members.
“It’s another tool in the toolbox,” Wobby said.
What has developed into an effort to raise awareness of mental health needs in the construction industry started with Wobby focused on reducing overdose deaths in the industry. The first mailing to AGC/VT’s 215 members included five doses of naloxone and information on how to access resources related to substance misuse and recovery.
Then, several members called Wobby, asking for additional training and resources. According to him, multiple members asked for information about supporting people living with mental health and substance misuse issues. Others asked about suicide prevention.
Wobby remembers thinking, “Okay, now we've started the conversation about overdose prevention and Narcan, and they're asking for more? What better lead into the next conversation?”
According to a 2024 press release, in the initiative’s first six months, it:
- Reached approximately 150,000 people across the state (25% of our Vermont population)
- Distributed 15,000 Narcan doses to Vermont businesses and organizations
- Distributed 25,000 harm reduction kits to help people in need
- Held 12 virtual discussions and created a portable training and awareness campaign
- Held 25 on-site visits with contractors and organizations to discuss mental health and employee well-being
Wobby next spent another six months working with people in construction around suicide prevention.
“So we're making some good moves,” he said. “We're helping people in the construction industry, and it's getting recognized nationally for being a different way to go about doing it and a way that's having some success. So it's really awesome to see a year out, having this level of acceptance and success.”
At the end of the first year, Wobby and the partnership followed up with training on recognizing when someone is dealing with a crisis and supporting people when they ask for help.
“As a company, how we can destigmatize the conversation and just make it so our employees feel comfortable to come up and say, I'm not doing well, whether it is dealing with addiction or whether it's dealing with mental health?” he said.
Wobby said the partnership with the AGC/VT and VDH has expanded to include other support organizations, such as Jenna’s Promise with Gregory Tatro and InvestEAP.
This year, the Employee Wellness Initiative received national recognition as a Power of Associations Gold Award recipient by the American Society of Association Executives (ASAE).
Wobby grew up in the construction industry and has spent his career working in the realm of workplace safety.
While serving as an independent consultant in Vermont’s nascent regulated cannabis market, Wobby read the Vermont Social Autopsy report, published in August 2023 by the VDH. The report's data hit Wobby, where he lived.
The state’s construction industry has the highest rate of people dying from opioid overdoses. According to the report, which annualized 2021 data, of all reported deaths, fentanyl contributed to 83 percent.
He took the report to his father, AGC/VT's Executive Director, Richard Wobby.
Richard Wobby jokes that the first time his son showed him the report, he told him to get lost. The second time Wobby brought up the data, his father said, “Okay, tell me what to do.”
Wobby uses the phrase Diseases of Despair to describe substance misuse, suicide, isolation, and alcoholism.
A similar phrase, deaths of despair, is credited to Princeton economists Anne Case and Angus Deaton based on their 2015 research into the overall decline in life expectancy of middle-aged white men and women between 1999 and 2015. The researchers pointed to an increase in deaths related to substance misuse, alcoholism, and liver issues (such as cirrhosis of the liver) as contributing to early deaths. Since then, other research has used diseases of despair to describe the cluster of diseases and contributing social conditions such as financial instability, fractured communities, and declining rural infrastructure.
According to Wobby, these diseases tend to affect people living on low incomes, who have low levels of education, or who live in rural areas.
Wobby said that a rural state like Vermont needs to worry about isolation in general. In addition, many people in the construction industry deal with low or unpredictable incomes and lower levels of education.
Richard Wobby added that severe injuries and chronic pain are realities for many construction workers, which can open the door to the misuse of pain medication.
The wellness initiative receives funding through individual donations and monies from the AGC/VT and the state.
Wobby said the program will evolve and focus more on wellness, expanding beyond the construction industry.
Wobby said the partnership deliberately chose the name of Employee Wellness.
Wobby acknowledged that wellness can mean many things to many people, but at its core, it means making sure your community is good and healthy.
Initially, the program focused on overdose and suicide prevention, he said. As the conversations and program expanded, the partnership wanted a word that would encompass all forms of employee care and health.
“There are a bunch of different ways that we can impact the mental health and morale of the people and the companies that we work with, but it's just starting with the actual physical health of the people in terms of overdose, the mental health of the people, in terms of crisis, and then the more broad expansion of those health and wellness aspects of employment, and all the different ways that we can help with that,” he said.
The hope is that by supporting people earlier with any struggles they’re facing, fewer will turn towards substances or suicide.
In his opinion, Vermont is resource-rich when it comes to prevention and recovery. However, these resources don’t reach enough end users.
By end users, he means everyone living and working in Vermont.
“We never know when any of us — or any of the people that we care about — is going to be struggling with addiction, is going to possibly overdose, is going to be struggling with mental health crisis,” Wobby said.
Richard Wobby is proud of AGC/VT’s work, but he admits to feeling uncomfortable talking about his industry’s struggles with substance misuse and suicide.
He jokes that his unease stems from his being an old crusty guy from the suck-it-up generation.
Still, he said, communities need their risk-takers for things to change.
“I don't care if you're a business if you're an association if you're a church, what you are, but someone in these communities has to take that lead and be able to risk what everybody else thinks about them,” Richard Wobby said. “And if we have those risk-takers and those people that actively care for people, we can win this battle, but it's risky, right?”
Wobby understands. He has seen the look of discomfort on the faces of the people he trains. But he believes people’s unease extends to all generations, ages, and industries.
Substance misuse and suicide are taboo subjects in our society, he said. Talking about the issues, however, is how communities can destigmatize them.
“A lot of times when something like this is brought up, it's very personal to us. We don't want to talk about it. It's uncomfortable, so we don't talk about it. We don't bring up problems that we might be facing because of that uncomfortableness. We don't say I'm dealing with that currently because we're concerned that it might make people feel uncomfortable,” Wobby said.
People need to feel okay to say they don’t feel okay.
“Nobody is doing well all the time, nobody's doing great all the time, and if you're having a problem, if you're struggling, it's okay to talk about because there are resources out there to support you,” he said.
Richard Wobby added, “I believe wholeheartedly that we as a community, as a family, have to actively care for those around us.”
To learn more about the Employee Wellness Partnership, contact Reid Wobby at [email protected] or 802-793-7715.
Anyone struggling with a crisis or considering suicide is encouraged to reach out to 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline at https://988lifeline.org/ or dial 988.
Olga Peters is a freelance writer from Windham County.
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