THIRTY-THREE people leapt from the Golden Gate Bridge last year, plunging 75 metres to their deaths. Yet the tally could have been much worse. Another 245 contemplating suicide were talked down by the police patrols who diligently comb America’s most famous suicide site. Plans to construct a suicide-prevention barrier (a large net) have now been agreed on: it will be completed in 2021 and cost $204m.
Though jumping is a relatively rare way to end one’s life, it is on the rise. There were 1,123 such deaths in 2016 compared with 788 in 2010. The same trend holds for suicides by gunshot, overdose and hanging, according to an analysis by The Economist of mortality files from the Centres for Disease Control. In almost every demographic category—men and women, young Asians and elderly whites, city dwellers and rural folk—the problem is getting worse.
In nearly all other OECD countries, suicide has declined since 2000...Continue reading
Source: United States https://ift.tt/2IbhJiA
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