Strategies at Bloor Viaduct

摘要

The Bloor Viaduct's anti-suicide barriers followed tireless campaigning by patients'relatives. As psychiatrist on the planning team (1998-2002), I was cognisant of their purpose and disagree with the assertion by Sinyor and Levitt that it was "standalone" suicide prevention. The barriers aimed at preventingthe suicide of impulsive or ambivalent people at the locus for half of the city's bridge jumpers, who jeopardised schoolchildren and passingvehicles below. "Hotlines" connected would-be jumpers to trained volunteers, who counselled, triaged, and referred to a well developed system of community psychiatric services.