Building Trust: Protecting Employees' Mental Health
As mental health takes center stage in workplace safety, Michigan’s Sean Egan shares how a bold, science-backed initiative is reshaping how industries tackle stress, burnout, and stigma.
- By Stasia DeMarco
- Aug 05, 2025
Increasing attention is being placed on workers’ mental health, as well as their physical health, but how do safety managers approach this challenge? Sean Egan, the Deputy Director of Labor for the State of Michigan, joins the OH&S Safety Pod to discuss Michigan’s groundbreaking workplace mental health initiative. Launched through the Department of Labor and Economic Opportunity (LEO), the program aims to help businesses reduce stress, burnout, and stigma in high-risk, high-pressure industries like construction.
Drawing from both policy expertise and lived experience, Egan explains how the initiative blends neuroscience, trauma-informed training, and innovative resources, such as the Man Therapy campaign, to support workers’ behavioral health. More than awareness, Michigan's program calls for systemic changes, including revisiting work design, hazard assessments, and access to care to make mental health a core part of safety culture.
This episode offers safety professionals a timely and practical roadmap for embedding mental well-being into their overall risk strategy, as well as redefining what it means to truly protect workers.
Download or stream this episode today from Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon and more.
About the Author
Stasia DeMarco brings a strong and varied journalism background to her role at Occupational Health & Safety, having previously served as a multimedia editor, broadcast journalist, professor and reviewer across major news organizations. As Content Editor, she writes news and feature articles, hosts sponsor and editorial webinars, co-hosts the SafetyPod worker health and safety podcast, and manages the brand’s digital and social media presence. She is committed to informing and engaging the safety community through compelling reporting and conversations that support safer, healthier workplaces.