Hope for suicide prevention.

This topic is not real estate related. 

It is a relevant and urgent topic of human struggle and the advances we’ve made to help people survive in their darkest hour. Rates in the US are awfully high, and though it can be painful to talk about, we do a disservice to our community if we shy away from the discussion. Suicide is a deeply human, and sadly prevalent issue we have to shine a light at, to alleviate some of the dark. 

Did you all see the 2006 documentary The Bridge? The filmmakers filmed 10,000 hours and 365 days of the Golden Gate and the several dozens of suicide attempts that occurred during that time frame. It was hugely controversial and absolutely heart breaking. But good has come from not shying away from the issue, and in that documentaries case, really looking at it head on. 

Recently the Golden Gate Bridge has secured a barrier of stainless-steel netting making it nearly impossible to jump from the bridge into the water. It’s been a long time coming, and though it might sound minuscule in the sea of ways people commit suicide, recent studies show otherwise. Turns out that mitigating deadly options people can easily access while having an overwhelming urge to end their lives, might very well save their lives.

It’s sounds kind of a little too blatantly obvious or an oversimplification of a complicated and nuanced issue. It’s so heavy and scary, because it is is not something we will ever be able to say is over, there is no one solution to overcome everyone’s deep hopelessness. But we can chip away at bringing down the rates in the ways we’ve learned are effective overtime. The goal post will always be moving, but here is something we know we can do to help today. 

We have come to recognize that suicide is an acutely impulsive occurrence. It can pass as quickly as it hits a person. In that moment if the options for inflicting one’s own death are really limited, they may go on to see tomorrow because of that lack of access to means of committing the act, in that dark, awful moment. 

Lots of cities with bridges and other tall structures have begun the conversation about installing barriers to save lives.

Another big one- if not the biggest one, is guns. As we know there are more guns than people in the United States and they are not going away any time soon.

So we have to look at how to decrease peoples easy access in times they are a danger to themselves. 

New studies are showing significant decreases in suicide by gun in states that have adopted red flag laws. These laws afford law enforcement the ability to temporarily remove firearms from the homes of people who exhibit behavior indicating they might harm themselves. 

There are also new conversations around encouraging gun-shops to provide the option that people might use lockers to hold their guns outside of their homes. Adding another step before that immediate access can be enough to make all the difference. 

We have made it through several years fraught with isolation and loneliness. 

We have come through a dark wet winter and in this month, we will see longer days with the time change, and we will see the flowering of a lighter, kinder season. 

This is a message of hope that there can be progress in the face of an ongoing, relentless tragedy. We aim for folks to come away from this feeling as though we have highlighted tools and strategies for effective change. Information empowers people to be of assistance, and to feel a little less helpless when confronted with such a beast.