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Anna Lofgren is a graduate student in Rhode Island.
A recent column in the Providence Journal declared the urgent need for suicide barriers on bridges in Rhode Island (“Saving Lives and Making Safer Bridges a Priority,” Commentary, Dec. 18th). Over the past decades, there has been an increase in the installation of suicide barriers and nets on bridges around the world. Despite the high cost of these projects, there are few clear objections. Bridge barriers are successful in saving lives, but fail to address the larger issues of mental health and wellness.
Given that youth suicide risk is associated with poverty, investing in our communities and youth is essential to reducing suffering. The US Census revealed that more than 11% of her Rhode Islanders live in poverty, many of them children. Rhode Island ranks among the top 10 most expensive states to live in in 2022, and it can pose a challenge for individuals and families.
According to RI Kids Count, more than 1,000 children will be homeless in the 2020-2021 school year, and 25% of Rhode Island households with children will struggle to meet basic food needs. reported that Unlike neighboring Massachusetts, Rhode Island has chosen not to continue its national free school meals program. No child in our state should be hungry and we have the funds to ensure this.
Rhode Island has a state budget surplus of approximately $610 million. While there are many ways to utilize these funds, housing and food affordability in our state are pressing issues. A link has been found between housing insecurity and suicidal ideation among veterans and LGBTQ youth. Allocating money to improve housing security may reduce suicidal thoughts.
Housing costs in Rhode Island are rising at an unprecedented rate. The Providence Journal reports that Providence rents have increased by 13% from 2020 to 2021, with “more than 70% of lowest- and lower-middle-income renters paying for his income, More than half of it is spent on housing.” In 2020, Crossroads RI distributed her $2.2 million rental assistance to Rhode Islanders in need. This is a significant amount of money, but it pales in comparison to the cost of the suicide barrier.
The budget for the design blueprints for the Rhode Island suicide net is estimated at about $1 million. Using evidence from other states, the project could have cost him over $100 million to implement. In San Francisco, what was originally estimated to be a $142 million suicide net project turned into a $400 million project. The price hike was due to design miscalculations and a lack of transparency about the bridge’s deterioration. San Francisco has been working on the project since 2018, but delays have pushed the project well beyond his planned completion date of January 2021.
We may learn from other Western countries when it comes to investing in suicide prevention. Belgium and Canada built costly suicide barriers on bridges and then legalized physician-assisted euthanasia for extreme cases of depression. Similarly, if physician-assisted suicide for mental illness were legalized, one might think that reactive rather than preventive measures would be preferable.
Everyone has the right to a good life and we should encourage efforts to reduce suicide wherever possible. Feeding the root of the problem may bear fruit. As affordability becomes a bigger problem across the state, we need to look deeper into potential solutions and address the everyday factors that contribute to poor mental health.
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