Suicide-Deterrent Net Long Overdue

I was the president of APA at the May 2009 Annual Meeting in San Francisco. I was presented with a beautiful rendering of the Golden Gate Bridge to be used in promotional materials for the meeting. I decided that an image of one of the most popular suicide venues in the world was not appropriate for a psychiatric meeting. We used a very nice rendering of a cable car, and we invited a survivor of a jump from the Golden Gate Bridge to speak at the meeting.

Building a barrier is certainly expensive, and no doubt that amount of money could buy a fair amount of psychiatric care. However, in my long experience, that’s not how things work—even when within the mental health system and mandated by law. The money saved by closing mental hospitals and hospital beds has never gone into the community mental health system. There is also no reason to believe that many of the people who seek to jump from the bridge have sought or would seek mental health care. Suicide is often an impulsive act by an individual with no diagnosable psychiatric disorder who is having a resolvable life crisis. Survivors tell us that they had second thoughts even as they plunged toward the freezing waters of San Francisco Bay—but most jumpers cannot survive that impact whether they have second thoughts or not. There is good evidence that many people whose suicide attempts are thwarted do not go on to complete a suicide. England reduced suicides by building bridge barriers and switching from coal gas to natural gas.

I have been a vocal advocate for increased investment in mental health care for decades. At the same time, I am very happy to see San Francisco restore that beautiful engineering marvel, the Golden Gate Bridge, to service as a gateway and a landmark, rather than a death magnet. ■

"Funds Spent on Suicide-Deterrent Net Could Be Used for Treatment" can be accessed here.