New York Times has a very interesting and well-written piece on the ‘how’ or mechanisms of suicide consummation and how simple steps like reducing access to guns, or erecting barriers on bridges which are at a height, or even simple things like not packing tablets in bottles , but in pouches, so that it takes time to remove the pills form their containers before an overdose can be taken; can lead to big reduction in suicide rates as the few extra efforts or time needed to commit the act, is often enough to dissuade people from acting on their impulse.
It is a very nice post and is a must reading for everyone, especially mental-health workers and those involved in making public policies as it dispels the myth that those hell-bent on taking their lives will go to any length to do so and will find alternative mechanisms if one mechanism is made costly.
Thanks to Mind Hacks for bringing this to my attention!
That makes sense, I would imagine that a lot of the time self harm was an impulsive decision, which may not have occurred if one had taken time to think it through. Interesting stuff. Great site!
Valuable resource of suicide prevention news summaries: http://ng2000.com/ng2000bb/YaBB.pl?num=1221589163