Group opposes suicide prevention fence on bridge

[The Straight Story]

Group opposes suicide prevention fence on bridge

SEATTLE - Seattle's Aurora Bridge is second only to the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco for the number of suicides. In the past three years, nearly 20 people have committed suicide by jumping from the nearly 15-story high bridge.

Should the state build a $7 million fence along the bridge to keep people from jumping off? A group of Queen Anne residents says the plan is misguided.

George Counts is on the board of Sound Mental Health and he's convinced the money could be better used.

"Focus funding on agencies and groups that treat mental illness rather than focusing on one particular location," he said.

That location is where hundreds of people live and work in the Fremont neighborhood.

http://www.king5.com/localnews/stories/NW_040209WAB-aurora-bridge-suicide-fence-SW.97932bec.html

I wish, I wish, I wish they would spend more money on helping understand and fix the reasons people kill themselves. It's not guns, bridges, suicide by cop, etc - folks will always find a way to kill themselves. We need to help people more.

[NC_Nurse]

1. That seems kind of silly to me. If someone wants to commit suicide, they'll find

a way. How about putting that 7 million into better mental health services? Help for the mentally ill
and the depressed is woefully inadequate in most of the country. Maybe it would even stop some of these
shooters who kill others along with themselves.

I'm with you TSS.

[Historic NY]

2. Perhaps then they will do the fishing & recovery operations.

Of course if it isn't made harder then jumping become more commonplace. Our state bridge authority took actions to make it harder & it seems (Seems) to pay off.

[Kurt_and_Hunter]

3. I oppose the idea of the fence

Suicide-prevention architecture is a ridiculous idea.

Accident prevention, yes, of course.

[DemoTex]

6. Well, I agree .. sort of.

The suicide prevention fences on the Duke Ellington bridge in Washington, DC, worked. But who knows what other bridge or gas oven or pistol the suicide-prone might have turned to. It seems circular.

[stillcool]

4. They're doing that here too...

Sounds to me like a padding project. I know of no one who has suicided themselves off our bridge. And unless it's low tide, I'm not sure it would do the trick.

http://www.wickedlocal.com/gloucester/news/x426337192/A-Piatt-Andrew-Bridge-rehab-to-finish-in-2011-project-to-cost-state-22-3-million

[Ocracoker16]

5. They should be considering how to improve mental health services

They need to see suicide as part of a much larger problem. If they were to build this costly fence, they could stop people from jumping off of it, but they couldn't prevent people from committing suicide. Nor could they prevent the violent shootings that have become a much too frequent event. They need to look beyond a quick fix for the bridge problem and take a closer look at the quality of mental health care. I have too often heard of cases where suicidal or homicidal people get committed to a hospital for 72 hours and they are then discharged without referrals to a clinic with mental health professionals for further treatment of their problems. Too many of these publically funded services are overwhelmed with patients and they tell people who are quite distuurbed to come back a month later.

I think it is especially important to make sure there are counseling services for those affected by the economic crisis. Some people might not meet the diagnostic criteria for a mental illness, but need some form of support to prevent the worsening of their condition.