For the past several months, Corey Hirsch has been ICBA’s Wellness Ambassador, and we’ve taken him to nearly two dozen speaking gigs across B.C., including many of our amazing members – companies like Jacob Bros, Hall Constructors, Tybo, and Robertson Walls and Ceilings.
Last week, we finally got to bring him in to share his presentation with our full team! More than 50 ICBA staff came together for our Quarterly Townhall and heard from the former Vancouver Canucks goaltender and mental health advocate, who spoke passionately and emotionally about mental wellness.
We are so proud of Corey’s efforts in sharing his personal struggles with mental health throughout his professional hockey career. With ICBA Wellness, he has reinforced our message of the importance of starting conversations and breaking down the stigma around mental health, addiction and suicide.
At ICBA, we are committed to reaching out to our +250,000 industry colleagues who go to work every day on BC construction sites, so together, we can provide those of us suffering in silence the help they need to recover and get better. And we must continue this work: a recent report out of Ontario found that construction workers constituted 30 per cent of those people who died of drug overdoses in 2020 – a number similar to previous to BC studies.
Thanks to Corey for being vulnerable with us and leading by example on this critical issue for our industry. (Corey also visited Kelowna last week for an ICBA members’ breakfast, and the Kelowna Capital News had a great story on the event HERE.)
ICBA’s Workplace Wellness Program is helping more than 75 companies and 7,000+ construction professionals better understand mental health. The program is free for ICBA members — see icba.ca/wellness.
