WHAT WE THINK

PREVENTION IS THE CURE.

To prevent suicide and other deaths of despair in our industries, we do not simply need to educate about suicide. By the time an individual decides suicide is the only option or the best option, he or she has been struggling, trying to find a way out of the pain for quite some time. Suicide becomes an option when the pain is too great and goes on for too long.

By this stage of ill mental health, there have been countless opportunities missed along the way to help this employee.

Currently, in best-case scenarios, across our country, employers offer employee assistance programs so that employees might be able to see a counselor if they are suffering from anxiety, depression, or other ill-mental health. However, unless the work culture supports, normalizes, and encourages counseling, it will remain an unused or underutilized resource. Employees continue to suffer in silence, and their conditions worsen. These employees miss work or put their own and others’ physical wellbeing at risk when they are at work. When anxiety and depression are extreme, without relief, suicide becomes a thought, a plan, an option.

Domain Wellness Partners has a better idea.

Instead of waiting until there is a huge problem to solve, let’s prevent the problem.

What could happen if mental wellness was a priority?

What could happen if we could not only prevent suicide, but anxiety and depression as well?

How would this affect employee’s lives?

How would it affect the way companies function and do business?

These questions are at the heart of our wellness model. Through working with individual counseling and coaching clients who fell everywhere on the spectrum from lacking purpose and satisfaction in life to being severely depressed, or anxious, we saw a pattern. This pattern formed the outline of steps that it takes to become mentally well, resilient, and satisfied in life. As clients worked these steps, I saw them pull away from dissatisfaction, anxiety, and depression and move toward satisfaction, resilience, and overall mental wellness.

What happens within companies when employees are happier, satisfied with their lives, and mentally resilient? Less turnover. Fewer injuries. Fewer missed days. Projects are completed on time. Companies actually make a return on their money for doing the right thing. In fact, companies average $2.3-$4.1 dollars in return for every dollar spent on mental wellness.

This is a win-win.

Teresa Magnus is the Principal consultant of Magnus & Company, a construction and management advisory firm committed to improving the industry’s experience by challenging conventional business models through unique thinking, creative solutions, and intelligent execution. Over the past 25 years, Teresa’s work experience has focused on planning and managing major construction programs, workforce and labor strategy, business growth and expansion, contract strategy, administration, prevention, and complex claims resolution. Teresa has held previous roles for the Southern Company, served as CEO of Vulcan Industrial Contractors, and worked as a dispute resolution consultant with Price Waterhouse and Arthur Andersen. Teresa’s community involvement focuses on education, inclusion, and the advancement of the field of construction. Teresa has served as an advisory Board member for the Shelby County Schools technical education Program, the Shelby county chamber of commerce Workforce development committee, the Advisory Board of the Alabama Go Build Initiative, and the Georgia Governor’s Workforce development committee. She has served on the board of the local YMCA branch and currently chairs annually the Girls can camp she founded in Alabama. Teresa was awarded the crystal vision award in 2010 for her work in promoting the inclusion of women in the construction industry and has been recognized by the Birmingham Business Journal and Southeast construction magazine for her leadership. In 2018, she was recognized by the construction users roundtable for her contributions to the organization and the construction industry. Teresa earned a Bachelor of Science in accountancy from Miami University in Oxford, Ohio, and is a CPA licensed in Ohio. She holds a Juris Doctor from the Samford University Cumberland School of Law and is admitted to the Georgia Bar.

Kathryn Ely is a licensed counselor and Mental Health and Wellness consultant, with her own practice, Empower counseling LLC. in Birmingham, Alabama. After spending most of her life limited by anxiety and perfectionism, Kathryn searched out the most proven methods for treating both disorders. By combining the research of others with consistently tracking the results of her own clients, Kathryn has created a highly effective and efficient process of helping clients who not only suffer from anxiety and depression, but who also feel lost, looking for purpose, or are simply unsatisfied with their lives. Through uncovering limiting beliefs, gaining clarity within the 8 domains, and taking action toward values, Kathryn guides clients away from mental health issues and toward their most fulfilling lives. She also hosts a podcast which reflects this area of expertise. Before opening her practice, Kathryn provided mental health services through the UAB Community Counseling Clinic and practiced law. She earned a master’s degree in Clinical Mental Health from the University of Alabama at Birmingham, a Juris Doctor from the University of Alabama School of Law, and a bachelor’s degree in Political Science with a minor in Psychology from Birmingham Southern College. During law school, Kathryn was named to the Law and Psychology Review.

Our mission is to equip every member of your industry with the tools necessary for mental wellness so that no one else has to suffer in silence.

Offer the tools, the education, and the support necessary for all of your employees to learn how to stay mentally well.

PREVENT THE PROBLEM.