Metro officials are preparing to roll out a new $250,000 program intended to address the recent rash of successful suicide attempts involving the transit system.
The Metro Board’s safety committee on Thursday is scheduled to discuss a long-delayed suicide prevention program. But details of the agency’s plan to stop people from killing themselves with the help of Metro trains and tracks are ill defined.
At least 15 people have killed themselves on Metro property since the start of last year, or roughly five times the two-suicide annual average since 1976. Metro planning documents say action is needed to combat that “surge in suicides.”
If the new program is approved, Metro could begin training bus drivers, train operators and station managers as early as December to detect and potentially prevent suicide attempts.
“[The program] will involve training our employees on observing and reporting what appears to be a suicidal situation, and staying alert and intervening in those situations to prevent a suicide from happening,” said Metro spokesman Reggie Woodruff.
Woodruff said his agency sent employees to Canada to observe similar programs instituted by the Toronto subway system, and were also working with the American Association of Suicidology to develop a prevention plan.
Metro officials originally announced plans for a suicide-cessation program late last year. But budget issues stalled the program until June, when funding was finally identified. The transit agency has since worked to develop a proposal for board approval, Woodruff explained.
He said the transit system’s suicide-prevention program would eventually expand to include a customer outreach campaign.
“Through posters and announcements, as well as working with partners like the D.C. Department of Mental Health, we’ll try to communicate about our program and different suicide prevention topics with our customers,” Woodruff said.
But neither Woodruff nor the agency’s planning documents could provide specifics about the passenger behaviors Metro train and bus operators would be taught to spot, or how Metro employees could intervene.
Woodruff said the agency doesn’t have an explanation for the recent spike in suicides and suicide attempts.
The Metro Board will likely discuss the suicide-prevention program at its Sept. 30 meeting.
