MEANS RESTRICTION: Preventing Access to Lethal Means

Limiting access to lethal means of self-harm can be an effective strategy for suicide prevention. Sometimes suicidal behaviors are impulsive and by making access to means more difficult, workplaces can give people more time and space between a suicidal crisis and an irrevocable decision. One study asked people who survived nearly-lethal suicide attempts: “How much time passed between the time you decided to contemplate suicide and when you actually attempted suicide?” 24% said less than five minutes.¹ If workplaces can get people through their suicidal crisis by preventing them access to lethal means, the chance of recovery is great: 90% of survivors of near-lethal suicide attempts do not end up completing suicide.²

In the general population firearms are the common method of suicide completions in the United States, followed by suffocation, poisoning, and falls. Several studies have indicated that having a firearm in the home significantly increases the risk of completed suicide, and stricter gun control laws have been followed by a decrease both in homicide and suicide.³ The Golden Gate Bridge is the leading suicide location worldwide, but installing barriers remains controversial.

Safety personnel should consider which means of suicide might be more accessible in their workplace and look to provide education, policy and technology to prevent access to those means.

On the bridge, Baldwin counted to ten and stayed frozen. He counted to ten again, then vaulted over. “I still see my hands coming off the railing,” he said. As he crossed to chord in flight, Baldwin recalls, “I instantly realized that everything in my life that I’d thought was unfixable was totally fixable – except for having just jumped.” (Friend, T. (2003). Jumpers. The New Yorker.)

¹Simon, O., Swann, A., Powell, K., Potter, L, Kresnow, M, & O'Carroll, P (2001). Characteristics of impulsive suicide attempts and attempters. Suicide and Life–Threatening Behavior, 32(1 Suppl), 49–59.
²Swahn, M. & Potter, L. (2001). Factors associated with the medical severity of suicide attempts in youths and young adults. Suicide and Life Threatening Behavior, 32(1) 21-29.
³Spielmann, G. (2005). Means restriction. Retrieved on December 23, 2007 from http://www.omh.state.ny.us/omhweb/savinglives/Volume2/means_rest.html.