Ken Schram: Could this $7 million be better spent?

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By Ken Schram

Summary

Officials want to spend that money to build a suicide prevention fence on the Aurora Bridge. I don't think it's a stupid idea, just a simple-minded one.

Story Published: Apr 6, 2009 at 9:40 AM PST

Ken Schram: Could this $7 million be better spent?
SEATTLE -- It's not just the money.

Though $7 million for a suicide prevention fence on the Aurora Bridge is a lot of cash.

The notion is that putting up such a barrier would be the best way to keep people from leaping to their deaths.

The Aurora Bridge lags behind only San Francisco's Golden Gate when it comes to the number of bridge suicides.

In the past decade, 40 people have jumped from this particular stretch of Highway 99, prompting everyone from the governor to citizen activists to question what should be done.

Last year, six emergency phones were installed on the bridge, as were more than a dozen signs urging people to seek help rather than jump.

But it's difficult to gauge just how many, if any, lives have been saved.

So now talk has turned to building a fence.

I don't think it's a stupid idea, just a simple-minded one.

People intent on suicide will just find another place or another way.

Seven million dollars for a fence versus $7 million added to the treatment of mental illness?

Seven million dollars focused on one suicide location, or $7 million to deal with the issue of depression and despair?

It's not just the money.

It's how you use it.

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