Advocates of suicide prevention barriers are not giving up the fight

By Christy Nadalin
Posted 11/15/20

It was looking like 2020 was going to be a great year for Bryan Ganley of Bristol and Melissa Cotta of Tiverton, co-founders of "Bridging the Gap for Safety and Healing", an organization dedicated to …

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Advocates of suicide prevention barriers are not giving up the fight

Posted

It was looking like 2020 was going to be a great year for Bryan Ganley of Bristol and Melissa Cotta of Tiverton, co-founders of "Bridging the Gap for Safety and Healing", an organization dedicated to seeing the installation of safety barriers to prevent suicides on local bridges. It was looking as though their advocacy had caught the attention of legislators, and they were going to finally see some positive results for all their hard work.

A bill (2020-H 7366), introduced by Rep. Joseph J. Solomon Jr. (D-22), directing the Department of Transportation, in conjunction with the Rhode Island Turnpike and Bridge Authority, to erect the barriers on the Mount Hope Bridge, the Claiborne Pell Bridge, and the Jamestown Verrazzano Bridge by Jan. 1, 2022, was about to be heard in committee. Ms. Cotta and Mr. Ganley had organized over 100 supporters to come to the state house, many planning to speak in support of the bill.

Then COVID shut everything down; including the 2020 legislative session. The bill was dead, before even having the opportunity to get through committee.

With the 2021 session scheduled to begin in January — and expected to be dominated by emergency budget and appropriations concerns, Ms. Cotta and Mr. Ganley have no idea when attention will return to their very important issue. "COVID has had the double impact of causing despair while bringing this process to a halt," said Ms. Cotta. "We had such good momentum."

COVID has brought illness, despair, and financial hardship — all things that exacerbate the stress felt by people with suicidal ideations. Indeed, Mr. Ganley and Ms. Cotta report there were two additional lives lost to our bridges just last Sunday, one from the Newport Pell Bridge, and another from the Mt. Hope Bridge.

As has always been the case, the official records of these deaths are not recorded as suicide-by-bridge and maintained by one agency, masking the scope and scale of the problem. A jump witnessed by a Bristol Police officer may go down as such in that agency's records; while an unwitnessed jump in Jamestown may go down as an "accidental drowning" in records maintained by the state's Department of Health. Ms. Cotta attempted to confirm the two recent deaths with the Turnpike and Bridge Authority, but they were unable to do so, citing privacy concerns. "There's still no centralized counting of the numbers," said Ms. Cotta. "Suicides aren't getting reported."

For now, Mr. Ganley, Ms. Cotta, and their allies are forced to wait while COVID reorders legislative priories even while it throws gas on the flames that lead people to conclude that suicide is their only escape from despair.

One thing they aren't doing is giving up.

Samaritans to hold COVID-adapted virtual fundraiser

One of the many things that COVID has cancelled is 2020 Pell Bridge Run, at which The Samaritans of Rhode Island hosts one of the largest teams. The annual run has been a major awareness and fundraising event for The Samaritans, the state’s oldest continuously operating charity offering suicide prevention education and grief support programs.

Since the onset of the state’s shutdown orders in March, The Samaritans adapted to meet the new way of doing business including expanding telephone technologies, retraining volunteers, providing web-based links to national, state and local resources for emergency COVID and behavioral health services. In addition to its website and social media efforts, a billboard campaign has begun as well.

“Based on our experiences after Sept.11 and the economic downturn in 2008, today our biggest concerns are the long-term ramifications of the pandemic including those who contracted the illness or lost loves ones to COVID, isolation, stress and financial strain," said Ms. Panichas.

“COVID-19 has cancelled our annual fund raisers including our 'Cross the Bridge to Hope at the Pell Bridge Run'….That’s why we are pleased to announce our 2020 “Cross the Bridge to Hope” virtual event with its dream team members, Bryan Ganley of Bristol, John LaCross of Barrington and Joseph Tavares and Kenneth Walsh, both from East Greenwich."

According to Ms. Panichas, in their personal and professional lives, the combined life experiences of these Samaritans volunteers, as witnesses to loss by suicide and the lifetime of devastation it brings, has defined who they are and has strengthened their resolve to ensure that COVID-19 will not stop The Samaritans from continuing to offer its programs.
“I couldn’t be prouder of our team,” said Ms. Panichas.

Pandemic restrictions required creativity. As designed under the supervision of RIDEM, on an undisclosed day in November, the team will log four miles at Colt State Park – the same milage as the Pell Bridge Run and not far from the Mount Hope Bridge. The Samaritans will post training photo updates as well as pictures from the big day on social media. Unfortunately, COVID restrictions will not allow anyone to join them.

The fundraiser will be open through the end of December. To make an online donation via Paypal, please visit The Samaritans website at www.samaritansri.org . Donations can also be made by mail to The Samaritans of RI, PO. Box 9086, Providence RI 02940.

Mr. Ganley and Ms. Cotta look forward to seeing bridge barrier legislation reintroduced in the General Assembly's upcoming session. According to Ms. Cotta, it's important to continue to work towards prevention, not just for the lives that will be saved in the future but also to honor those who have been lost in the past. "People with past losses are still looking for this to be fixed," she said. "Every loss upsets and reopens old wounds, leaving these people asking 'do we not matter?'"


Bridging the Gap for Safety and Healing, samaritans, suicide

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