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from the 1-(800)-273-8255-National-Suicide-Prevention-Lifeline dept.
Experts and laymen have long assumed that people who died by suicide will ultimately do it even if temporarily deterred. Now Celia Watson Seupel reports at the NYT that a growing body of evidence challenges this view with many experts calling for a reconsideration of suicide-prevention strategies stressing “means restriction.” Instead of treating individual risk, means restriction entails modifying the environment by removing the means by which people usually die by suicide. The world cannot be made suicide-proof, of course. But, these researchers argue, if the walkway over a bridge is fenced off, a struggling college freshman cannot throw herself over the side. If parents leave guns in a locked safe, a teenage son cannot shoot himself if he suddenly decides life is hopeless.
Reducing the availability of highly lethal and commonly used suicide methods has been associated with declines in suicide rates of as much as 30%–50% in other countries (PDF). According to Cathy Barber, people trying to die by suicide tend to choose not the most effective method, but the one most at hand. Some methods have a case fatality rate as low as 1 or 2 percent,” says Barber. “With a gun, it’s closer to 85 or 90 percent. So it makes a difference what you’re reaching for in these low-planned or unplanned suicide attempts.” Ken Baldwin, who jumped from the Golden Gate Bridge in 1985 and lived, told reporters that he knew as soon as he had jumped that he had made a terrible mistake. "From the instant I saw my hand leave the railing, I knew I wanted to live. I was terrified out of my skull." Baldwin was lucky to survive the 220 foot plunge into frigid waters. Ms. Barber tells another story: On a friend’s very first day as an emergency room physician, a patient was wheeled in, a young man who had shot himself in a suicide attempt. “He was begging the doctors to save him,” she says. But they could not.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 12 2015, @05:22AM
Nearly two thirds of gun deaths in the USA are suicides. [pewresearch.org]
I used to think that wasn't a problem.
But then I realized that they were the result of illness, not fully rational decisions made with a sound mind. That people who want to do a Kevorkian, don't blow their brains out because finding their body afterwards would traumatize their family.
I think that over the next decade the pro-gun people are going to have a big problem standing up to ~19,000 preventable deaths each year - even if a small percent just switch to other means. [thinkprogress.org] I have not been able to come up with a rational and compassionate argument that stands up to that number. It has converted me from someone who was libertarian-typical pro-gun to someone who is mildly anti-gun.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 12 2015, @09:46AM
The problem with strong asstertions like that, is it only takes one anectode to prove you are wrong.
My uncle walked out into the desert and took his head off with a shotgun. He suffered from depression his entire life. A very rational man that had no rational expectation of a lifelong condition to dissipate died alone and did not want to be found.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 12 2015, @02:29PM
(1) No it doesn't. Making legal policy by anecdote in contradiction to the overwhelming majority of counter-evidence isn't a good idea.
(2) Your example is not a contradictory anecdote. All non-kevorkian suicides are caused by depression. Furthermore, walking out into the desert assures that his family won't be the ones to find his mangled body.
(Score: 1) by wisnoskij on Monday March 16 2015, @02:16PM
Just because some people misuse a tool, does not invalidate the majority who do not. If you want to tackle the issue, tackle it at its source, psychological wellness.