An issue that cries for public discussion

Suicide, and when and how to report on it, is taken very seriously by news media, including this newspaper.

A discussion Tuesday at Niagara Region’s public health committee raised the government approach to dealing with suicide, and media reporting on it. Niagara’s acting medical officer of health, Dr. Mustafa Hirji, said Niagara sees about 44 suicide deaths a year, but “in the last few years we are seeing a bit of an increase.”

His report, which was endorsed, calls for barriers at the Burgoyne Bridge at a cost of $4 million. The committee also heard that there are about 44 other areas in Niagara where there is an elevated risk of suicide attempts. Hirji didn’t disclose locations, but other bridges, railway crossings and even Niagara Falls all carry their own risks but aren’t protected by extra barriers.

Councillors Tim Rigby of St. Catharines and Tom Insinna of Fort Erie reasonably questioned the expenditure, suggesting the money would be better spent on mental health services and wondering if people wouldn’t just go to a different location. Hirji strongly defended the barriers, saying “this is actually, potentially, a very effective way of preventing deaths by suicide.”

We agree with Hirji that it makes sense to add barriers at the Burgoyne.

When the City of Toronto was considering putting suicide barriers on the Bloor Viaduct — a bridge that rises 40 metres over the Don Valley, and which was second only to San Francisco’s Golden Gate Bridge in suicide attempts — it looked to the city of Washington, D.C.

There, barriers were put on the Duke Ellington Bridge. The outcome: people considering suicide did not simply look for another bridge.

“There is documented information that … once you put a barrier up it doesn’t just transfer to other locations,” engineer Mike Laidlaw said in a report.

In fact, the problem site had become “romanticized,” he said. Once the barriers went up, incidents went down and didn’t migrate elsewhere. The same thing has happened at the Viaduct in Toronto.

As to how particular sites become romanticized, that likely has more to do with their design and stature than news coverage.

The Burgoyne Bridge and Niagara Falls are both highly visible landmarks. But a well-travelled highway runs beneath the Burgoyne, and the risk to travellers is correspondingly higher.

Which brings us to reporting.

Typically, newspapers do not report on acts of suicide that happen in private locations, such as residences.

Even ones in public places, such as Niagara Falls, are seldom reported.

That policy didn’t happen without some newsroom debate. Suicide is a serious social issue that deserves — demands — public discussion.

When a bridge and the highway below it are closed, how should it be reported? Especially in an age dominated by social media, news of this sort should be provided by a reporter talking to authorities who have knowledge of the issues — not based on speculation passed around on Facebook or Twitter.

As St. Catharines Mayor Walter Sendzik noted Tuesday, the discussion around barriers at the Burgoyne Bridge didn’t get to this point by ignoring the issue.

Had the media not reported upon it, he said, “it would be in the shadows of some family secret of something that happened.”

That’s how it happened in a previous era.

The issue of suicide prevention is uncomfortable, certainly, but it won’t be properly addressed by politicians and bureaucrats in the dark.

The community needs to be included in the discussion, to provide input and help set a direction.