Edmonton suicide-prevention strategy in the works
Roberta Bell | CBC News | Posted: July 26, 2016 2:30 AM | Last Updated: July 26, 2016
Newly-completed suicide prevention barriers on High Level Bridge first step in addressing suicide ‘epidemic’
The rows of high-tension wires strung close together along the sides of the High Level Bridge are meant to deter people who might be contemplating suicide.
But Kris Andreychuk of the city's citizen services department said those newly installed barriers are just the beginning of an Edmonton-specific suicide-prevention plan.
"This is the beginning for a city (that) is willing to name this for what it is: an epidemic," Andreychuk said at an event at Const. Ezio Faraone Park, where people who have lost loved ones to suicide gathered Monday.
The most recent numbers counted 124 suicide deaths in Edmonton in 2014.
The city has established an advisory committee to make recommendations to reduce that number. A report will come to council in September.
In 2015, the city put emergency phones on either end of the High Level Bridge for people in distress or people who see others in distress. Those phones have been used 44 times over the past year,
'It needs to be talked about'
The High Level Bridge has long had a reputation as a place where Edmontonians take their lives and after Dan Klemke`s wife Marilyn ended her life there, he pleaded with the city to do something.
"I know for decades when somebody jumped off the bridge the media did not report on it and I understand that because you don't want to give people ideas and it does, but I think it needs to be talked about," he said. "If people are suffering in silence, bad things happen."
It's a sentiment echoed by Art Roberts, whose son Harrison, jumped off the High Level Bridge in 2014.
"There's these quick impulses and I think if people are even held back five, ten minutes, maybe half an hour, they'll turn around," he said. "I firmly believe that these barricades are worth every penny and maybe 10 times as much as what was paid."
The advisory committee is also looking at targeting vulnerable groups, said Ione Challborn, with the Canadian Mental Health Association.
"We're looking at developing an understanding of what are the factors with different roots that lead one group or another to be more at risk for suicide," Challborn said.
For example, middle-aged men run the highest risk of suicide.
"What are ways that we could reach out to middle-aged men to have an impact on understanding the issues that men are facing and the resources that are available to men or not so that we're having a positive impact on men's mental health?" Challborn said.
If you or someone you know are experiencing a crisis, call the CMHA's distress line at 780-482-HELP (4357).