Funds Spent on Suicide-Deterrent Net Could Be Used for Treatment

I am writing in response to the article in the September 21 issue titled “Construction of Suicide Net Begins on Golden Gate Bridge.”

Two hundred and eleven million dollars for a suicide-deterrent net—that’s the cost cited in the article. Let’s do some math. Say an hour of therapy with a psychiatrist costs $211. Say a psychiatrist and a patient have 100 sessions over two years; that’s $21,100. For 10,000 patients, that’s $211 million. So 10,000 people could get weekly pharmacotherapy and psychotherapy from a psychiatrist for over two years for the same price as a steel net. Let’s figure there are a million people in the San Francisco area, and 1 percent are in great need of help and can’t afford it; that’s 10,000 people.

ne can’t help but notice the resemblance of this suicide-deterrent net to “the wall” proposed for our border with Mexico. Both barriers appeal to concrete thinking. Instead of “Mexico is going to pay,” we learn that the suicidal patients are going to pay with physical injuries just short of death: “Jumpers are highly likely to break bones—or be rendered immobile—after hitting the steel net.” Do residency programs still teach about reaction formation?

“The net will be gray, designed to blend in with the fog for which San Francisco is well known,” the article continued. When the fog on the bridge clears, we’ll likely be left with a reminder of the mental fog that led to the netting.

I think it’s doubtful that suicide rates will fall until more people stop thinking of patients who suffer from depression as populations or animal herds and instead focus on the doctor-patient relationship. This might be too personal to appeal to the mind of a business person or a politician, but $211 million is a net loss. Perhaps someone thought the net would broadcast some sentiment of compassion. What if it only broadcasts the increasingly impersonal nature of psychiatry today?

Perhaps it’s time to rethink “evidence-based medicine.” It is just a gimmick used by insurers to justify not paying for treatment. The details of an individual’s actual history are not considered evidence.

General Patton said, “Fixed fortifications are a monument to the stupidity of man.” He also noted, “Wars are not won by winning battles; they are won by choosing battles.” Might the money be better spent on psychiatric treatment? ■

"Suicide-Deterrent Net Long Overdue" can be accessed here.