In 2022, shortly after stepping into my role as an assistant city manager for Garland, Texas, I received a call that I will always remember. A long-tenured employee had died by suicide.

Garland was not an organization without support. The department had peer support, an embedded social worker, and a chaplain program. Citywide, we offered an employee assistance program and access to licensed mental health clinicians through our internal city clinic. On paper, we had the right resources in place.

But resources alone were not enough. The loss hit hard. The employee had grown up in the organization. Colleagues who had worked alongside this employee for years were grieving. Questions came quickly: Were there warning signs? Did anyone miss something? Did this person feel unable to ask for help? The ripple effects were felt across multiple departments as the question grew about how to honor this employee’s service and life.

Later that same week, I received another call. A second employee—newer to the organization and in a different department—had also died by suicide. The circumstances were unrelated, but the result was the same. This employee had not reached out for help either.

The second loss was especially personal. The employee worked in a department I oversee, and I had to deliver the news directly to the staff. The room was filled with shock, anger, sadness, and disbelief. Again, the same question surfaced: What could we have done differently?

Peer support was deployed immediately. I encouraged the department director—who led a team known for being tough and rough around the edges—to personally meet with the peer support team. He did so without hesitation. That decision mattered. When employees saw their leader openly accept support, many followed. In that moment, stigma dropped in a way no memo or training ever could.

Both departments shared a common culture: pride, resilience, and a belief that asking for help was weakness. That mindset is still common across public safety, operations, field services, and government workplaces more broadly.

Today, I serve on the Texas City Management Association’s Mental Health Task Force. Groups like this can keep the conversation going. The discussion around mental health needs to advance. Local government must have honest conversations about the warning signs leaders and coworkers should recognize, how organizations respond when employees are struggling, and whether the programs we offer are truly reaching the people who need them.

These losses reinforced several hard truths. Having resources is not the same as having a culture where people will use them. An organization can check every box and still fall short if vulnerability is discouraged. Leaders must go first. When leaders model help-seeking behavior, they normalize it for everyone else. Tough cultures require intentional outreach—not generic wellness messaging. Silence is dangerous. Conversations about stress, trauma, depression, and suicide risk are not optional; they are prevention. Support must be active, relational, and consistent.

Supporting employees through mental health challenges is also complex. Cities must balance compassion with personnel policies, confidentiality requirements, and HIPAA regulations. That reality demands coordination. Human Resources must play a central leadership role, working alongside management, department leaders, legal counsel, and support providers to ensure efforts are both compliant and genuinely supportive.

Every city and county should take a hard look at how it supports its people—not just what programs exist, but whether employees feel safe using them. Leaders set the tone. When leaders are honest about their own mental health and take responsibility for it, they send a clear message: seeking help is not weakness; it is part of the job.

Losing one employee is too many. Losing two in a single week is devastating. If open and direct conversations about mental health prevent even one family from experiencing that loss, then the discomfort of those conversations is worth it.

PHIL URRUTIA, ICMA-CM, is assistant city manager of Garland, Texas.