My beloved Washington, D.C. Metro has been in the news lately, and it's not for being the cleanest and most organized public transportation system in the country.
Unfortunately, it's for being the means by which a number of Washington-area residents are choosing to end their lives.
But, Metro is taking steps to curb the suicides occurring on its tracks, partnering with area suicide prevention organizations to develop training for Metro employees and reach out to individuals at risk for suicide through signs placed in Metro stations.
Metro is not the only transit agency to take on suicide prevention.
The Boston-area T, run by the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA) has partnered with Samaritans to place signs with hotline information at T stops. Toronto is planning an automatic train control system which will allow trains to operate without drivers, stopping in exactly the same place every time. Because the train will stop at a predictable location, a glass wall preventing access to the tracks can be installed.
What's interesting to me about how suicidologists are approaching prevention in this particular realm is the combination of studying individual characteristics of those who died by suicide on the tracks and an examination of the physical site at which they died.
According to an article by the American Public Transportation Association, the American Association of Suicidology (AAS) is looking at the motivation and background of people who have died by suicide on both freight and passenger rails systems.
At the same time, researchers are looking at "what structures exist - or don't - and whether certain structures might impede or prevent access to the tracks."
This approach - of looking simultaneously at individual characteristics and environmental conditions and designing interventions based on what you find - is comprehensive and potentially very effective, as it uses research evidence to develop a program.
"What leads a person who dies by suicide to be on the tracks at that time to kill themselves?" asks Karen Marshall of AAS. "If we can begin to get to the bottom of this as a method of choice, then we can begin to design prevention programs around it."
