From suicide surveillance to restricting access to means: A time series study of suicide prevention at the Story Bridge

Surveillance is a crucial part of suicide prevention, for identifying suicide trends, risk groups, suicide clusters (World Health Organization (WHO), 2014) and frequently used locations for suicide. Suicide sites are  usually public, natural or man-made objects known for their use for suicidal behaviour (e.g. bridges or cliffs) (Ross et al., 2020). Some suicide prevention activities to prevent jumping at common sites are more  effective than others. For example, a 2020 systematic review found that physical barriers reduced jumping suicides by 93% compared to a 46% reduction for jumping means restriction interventions delivered in  combination with other interventions (Okolie et al., 2020). Furthermore, a recent economic analysis of installing barriers at bridge sites in Australia found that barriers installed at multiple bridge sites are cost- saving and cost-effective in the short term (5 years) and long term (10 years) (Bandara et al., 2022).