Stronger by Design:

Situation

The Ironworker Management Progressive Action Cooperative Trust (IMPACT) represents over 130,000 ironworkers across North America. Faced with urgent mental health challenges—including high rates of substance use, suicide risk, and stress—IMPACT took a proactive approach to support its members and their families. Recognizing that stigma often prevents people from seeking help, union and management leadership partnered to offer an innovative, anonymous solution that breaks down barriers to care and fosters a culture of wellbeing.

Solution: A Proactive, Evidence-based Platform to Improve Mental Health Anytime, Anywhere, for Everyone

To address these challenges, IMPACT launched CredibleMind – a digital platform recommended by Segal Company – offering a comprehensive suite of mental health resources tailored to the needs of each union member and their families.

The platform provides:

• Confidential, Self-Guided Support – A stigma-free alternative to traditional counseling.
• Over a Dozen Optional Assessments – Helping build awareness and activate engagement.
• Evidence-Based Resources and Approaches – Articles, videos, self-assessments, and tools focused on more than 100 mental wellbeing topics including stress management, substance abuse recovery, and suicide prevention.
• Learning Lab – Offering curated Series on key topics, as well as an array of Practices that build skills, confidence, and new habits. 
• Proactive Outreach and Best Practice Toolkits – Outreach that stays timely and topical,  normalizing the focus on mental wellbeing as a focus.
• Real-Time Dashboards and Analytics – Allowing leaders to better target efforts to meet users’ needs and gauge progress over time.

Results: Engagement and Impact

Since its launch on December 15, 2024 (data collected 12/15/24-6/30/25), the platform has gained significant traction:

• 1,609 unique users engaged with the platform.
• 2,024 total sessions, averaging 1.25 sessions per user.
• Average session duration of 5 minutes and 57 seconds, indicating strong user interaction.
• 69% of users are men.
• 38 users accessed clinical help immediately; 131 users accessed other union services like the EAP.

Impact Summary:

The fact that 38 users accessed clinical help immediately is potentially life-saving. Immediate access to clinical support can mean the difference between crisis escalation and stabilization. These individuals may have been facing acute mental health concerns—such as suicidal ideation, severe anxiety, substance use relapse, or trauma—and getting timely care can prevent hospitalization, self-harm, or worse. Every one of these connections represents a critical intervention point that could have saved a life, preserved a family, or restored someone’s ability to function at work.

Additionally, 131 users accessing union services like the EAP shows a broader pattern of engagement with support systems the union is already investing in. This can include everything from counseling and legal advice to financial assistance and caregiving support. Such services help resolve underlying stressors that contribute to absenteeism, presenteeism, and accidents.

Key Takeaways

1. A highly accessible digital hub lowers stigma and simplifies access. Members appreciate the ability to seek support anonymously, increasing engagement with mental health resources.
2. Sustained engagement is possible. The average session duration and return visits suggest that members are finding value in the resources available.
3. Satisfying the critical need for mental health support can be achieved cost-effectively. The high initial usage demonstrates a demand for proactive, accessible mental health tools within the union workforce.
4. Reduced downstream costs related to disability claims, emergency care, or lost productivity.
5. Demonstrated trust in the union’s ability to provide real help—when it’s most needed.
6. Evergreen potential to magnify impact over time. – As trust and use of the CredibleMind platform grows, the union plans to further integrate it in support of broader health and safety initiatives, multiplying the return on its investment in this platform..

What’s Next

• Increase awareness and adoption.  Union leaders will continue to promote the platform through direct to user communications and peer advocacy.
• Expand content to better reach high-risk groups.  Enrich the member experience by emphasizing Learning Lab elements, such as Series and in-the-moment Practices.
• Use data-driven insights to optimize impact. Leverage analytics to refine and enhance outreach, as well as the focus of the digital experience.

Conclusion

The partnership between the IMPACT and CredibleMind has successfully provided a proactive, scalable, extensible, cost-effective, and stigma-lowering approach to mental health and wellbeing. By leveraging digital tools, the union is proactively addressing substance abuse, stress management, and suicide prevention—ultimately fostering a healthier, more resilient workforce. Even relatively small engagement numbers can represent a high return on investment when considering the cost of crises averted, productivity preserved, and lives potentially saved.