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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 frojack on Thursday March 12 2015, @07:12AM
Lots of up-mods for such a simplistic naive answer.
If ANYONE could find a plan to fix a broken society (never mind that people can't even agree what is and is not broken), that person would be first on my list of suspects. There is nothing so dangerous as someone with a plan to reform society.
Nothing in all the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity. MLK.
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 12 2015, @08:42AM
Not really. Simplistic naive answers supporting the prevalent group think are the sure way to get many upmods. So nothing unusual here.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by physicsmajor on Thursday March 12 2015, @02:23PM
I'll bite. People are committing suicide by and large because we have a society where it's becoming increasingly difficult if not outright impossible to be upwardly mobile. Freedom of choice, freedom to be curious, freedom to pursue their interests has been shoved aside in the face of a malignant corporatist culture the goal of which is a population of debt serfs, not thinking individuals. It's this we must fix.
The middle class is sliding back into poverty while the rich get richer by fleecing them. They're told education/college is the answer at an age where they are not capable of making fully informed decisions about the effects of current actions on their futures (on average that age is 25, per psychological studies). Then they tow this debt burden with them for life, because the gov't has made it impossible to discharge. As a side benefit that means literally anyone will lend money to anyone with a pulse to go to college, as it's guaranteed to be collected. Because the supply is infinite, no surprises here, costs skyrocket. Quality has also tanked, because higher ed institutions have realized more students is better for the bottom line in every case. This is without even touching the disaster that is K-12 education, designed to produce fact-memorizing robots rather than fostering independent thought and curiosity. Every human starts as a scientist/engineer, experimentation is how we learn how the world works. It's actually the default state; that has to be driven out of people by the system.
I could go on. Near-guaranteed bankruptcy if you contact the medical system. Racism inherent to affirmative action. However, if you want actionable fixes, here are a few.
1) Make all debt dischargeable in bankruptcy, which is what the Constitution actually requires.
2) Mandatory sunset provisions for all legislation not to exceed 15 years. Have Congress worried about refining laws that actually matter with the times, instead of bogging down the US Code which is already so stuffed that you commit, on average, 3 felonies per day (Google it).
3) Require all point-of-care medical institutions to be non-profits.
4) Eliminate or limit the shit out of money and the revolving door in politics.
5) Return the Senate to State appointment instead of direct election. We need one body at least which can focus on what's in the interest of the States, and not constantly worried about the next election cycle.
Any more snarky comments?
(Score: 1) by wisnoskij on Monday March 16 2015, @02:48PM
Not that I disagree with much you have said, but I don't agree that those would have any effect on suicide. I guess, lets start at the beginning. I don't think upwards mobility has much effect on suicide (that is not even a thing that existed throughout all of our evolution), nor do I think it is something to necessarily strive for. America is founded on merit. Americans have always and continue to want reward to be derived from merit. Considering that intelligence and many the physical features are very heritable you would not expect a meritocracy to necessarily be very mobile. After an initial chaotic period you would expect a meritocracy to settle down and not differ too much from a class based system in practice.
Suicide is caused by social problems. People living on rice in a gutter are happy if they have the respect and love of friends and family and have dependents. The problem is that the government has dismantled the family and community. Town and families used to look out for eachother. As long as you had living family you did not used to be able to be homeless or starving. But the government came in with things like welfare and tricked people into believing they no longer need their family to watch their back and now all we have are lonely individuals who have nothing but poor impersonal government welfare to fall back on instead of supportive loving friends, family, and neighbors.