Citation

Skegg K, Herbison P. Aust. N. Zeal. J. Psychiatry 2009; 43(6): 498-502.

Affiliation

Department of Psychological Medicine, University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand. keren.skegg@otago.ac.nz

Copyright

(Copyright © 2009, Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists, Publisher SAGE Publishing)

DOI

10.1080/00048670902873698

PMID

19440880

Abstract

OBJECTIVE: The road to a headland that had become a suicide jumping hotspot was temporarily closed because of construction work. This created an opportunity to assess whether loss of vehicular access would lead to a reduction in suicides and emergency police callouts for threatened suicide at the site. METHOD: Deaths at the headland were ascertained for a 10 year period before road closure and for 2 years following closure using records from the local police inquest officer, the coroner's pathologist and Marine Search and Rescue. Police provided a list of police callouts for threatened suicide at the site for a 4 year period before closure and for 2 years following closure. Simple rates were compared and incident rate ratios were calculated where possible. RESULTS: There were 13 deaths at the headland involving suicide or open verdicts in the 10 years before access was restricted, and none in the 2 years following road closure. This difference was statistically significant (incident rate difference = 1.3 deaths per year, 95% confidence interval (CI) = 0.6-2.0). No jumping suicides occurred elsewhere in the police district following the road closure. Police callouts for threatened suicide also fell significantly, from 19.3 per year in the 4 years prior to road closure to 9.5 per year for the following 2 years (incident rate ratio = 2.0, 95% CI = 1.2-3.5). CONCLUSIONS: Preventing vehicular access to a suicide jumping hotspot was an effective means of suicide prevention at the site. There was no evidence of substitution to other jumping sites.

Language: en