Tag Archives for The Samaritans

We can prevent “suicide by bridge”

Published in RINewsToday on July 26, 2021

As the General Assembly goes into recess until the fall, Rep. Joseph J. Solomon Jr. (D-Dist. 22, Warwick) sees H-5053, to require safety barriers or netting on the three bridges that connect Aquidneck and Conanicut Islands to the mainland of Rhode Island, as in hiatus. The bill in House Corporations never came out of committee but that isn’t stopping the House sponsor from working to see the legislative intent fulfilled. 

According to Solomon, the Rhode Island Turnpike and Bridge Authority currently has a number of suicide prevention measures in place, including a smart surveillance system allowing authorities to act quickly, but virtually no way to physically deter a determined jumper. The Rhode Island Samaritans also has signs posted at the bridge entrances with information to access RI’s 911 system for emergencies or The Samaritans one to one hotline, where individuals can speak to someone. 

But determined people do jump, Solomon notes, explaining the need for passage of H-5053.

“Too many people have committed suicide on those bridges in the last decade,” said Representative Solomon in a statement released when the bill was introduced last January. “Due to technological advances, there are various types of barriers and netting available to increase safety without hindering access for routine inspection and maintenance of the bridges,” he said.

“It’s not only a serious problem, but an alarmingly frequent one,” said Solomon explaining why he introduced his bill. “Last year alone, the Portsmouth Police responded to the Mount Hope Bridge 36 times. And the cost of suicide goes far beyond the individual. It affects friends, families, first responders and health care professionals. Those who survive the fall all say the same thing: they feel instant regret the moment their feet leave the railing.”

Sen. Louis P. DiPalma’s (D-Dist. 12, Middletown, Newport, Tiverton, Little Compton), companion measure, S-117 met the same fate by not being voted out of the Senate Housing and Municipal Government Committee.  

If the General Assembly had passed these bills during this legislative session, Rhode Island would have taken a leadership position and joined other states such as New York, California and Florida and countries around the world that have moved to put physical safety barriers on the bridges to deter suicides. 

  • Barrier under construction in Florida
  • No barriers in Rhode Island

Raising the Visibility of the Need for Physical Barriers

Melissa Cotta of Tiverton and Bryan Ganley of Bristol founded Bridging the Gap for Safety and Healing. Their Facebook page says its mission is to “raise suicide awareness & prevention, increase cycling & pedestrian safety on our bridges & offer support to all the survivors of those lost including families and loved ones, witnesses, first responders and our entire community. Our top goals include preventing bridge suicides by advocating for restricting easy access to means of suicide in general & installation of bridge safety barriers.”

According to Cotta, who witnessed a suicide from the Mount Hope Bridge, and Ganley, a 40-year Samaritan volunteer and survivor of suicide by loved ones and friends, last year COVID-19 derailed the passage of legislation introduced by Solomon and DiPalma to bring suicide prevention barriers to Rhode Island’s bridges. This year, with legislation reintroduced, they turned to social media and Facebook to urge Rhode Islanders to call for lawmakers to install physical barriers on the state’s unprotected bridges.

“The time is now! Take the means for suicide away!” – they say. We don’t want to lose any more people to these bridges,” referring to suicides on the Jamestown-Verrazzano, Claiborne Pell, Mt. Hope and Sakonnet River Bridges.

Army Corp of Engineers say barriers work on Cape Cod’s Bridges

According to a 1983 memorandum “Information Awards” for the “Installation of Suicide Deterrent Fencing” on the Bourne & Sagamore Highway Bridges at the Cape Cod Canal barriers were installed at the request of The Samaritans of Cape Cod, led by Monica Dickens, great-granddaughter of Charles Dickens and a driving force in the creation of The Samaritans in Boston, on Cape Cod and in Rhode Island.

According to additional information provided by the Army Corp of Engineers, managers of the Cape Cod Canal and the Bourne and Sagamore Bridges “during a 28-year period after the fencing was installed, between 1984 and 2012, a total of 7 persons committed suicide from the bridges. A far lower rate of incidence than what was recorded for the years before the fencing was installed as part of the major rehabilitation project started in 1979.”

From 2013-April 2021, the Army Corps is aware of “two attempts that were prevented thanks to the quick actions of state and local law enforcement officers. The presence of fencing may not only deter attempts from occurring, but it can also delay an attempt long enough to give law enforcement a chance to successfully respond to an incident when one does occur. “(Note: This is not conclusive information as reports may have gone to state or local police.)

“In RI, from 2009-2018, we know of at least 33 deaths from our bridges and from November 2020 to July 2, 2021, we are aware of at least 8 persons lost from the bridges,” say Cotta and Ganley.  

“Many suicides can’t be predicted or prevented, but suicides from bridges is something we can prevent with the installation of Suicide Prevention Barriers on our state’s three major bridges,” noted Ganley in written testimony to support H 5053. 

Ganley added: “As a Hotline/Listening volunteer, we are trained to first remove the means of suicide.  A bridge with 135’ drop and only a 3’ rail, is like handing a suicidal person a loaded gun.  These bridges are all loaded guns.  We need to take away the gun.”

The Final Push…

With the Rhode Island General Assembly in recess, just days ago ABC 6 reported that Solomon and DiPalma are still seeking ways to fund the installation of barriers on Rhode Island bridges to prevent suicide.  Solomon tells ABC6 in a statement: 

“Although the General Assembly is currently in recess, we are still working behind the scenes with the RI Bridge and Turnpike Authority and the RI Department of Transportation on moving things forward. With one-time federal funding becoming available in the federal infrastructure bill, it is our hope that some of the funding can be allocated to both the design and implementation of suicide prevention barriers or netting. 

Although we are moving in the right direction this is not a time to become complacent. Melissa Cotta and Bryan Ganley have done an outstanding job working on this from day one. They are continuing to raise awareness on this issue and show that it is a priority in Rhode Island. Rhode Island would not be the first state to implement these barriers. Those states that do have barriers show how effective they are. I will continue to push for this legislation with the intent of getting it passed when we reconvene this fall.”

Sign the Petition…

“The petition for safety/suicide prevention barriers is intended to increase awareness of this issue and show residents of Rhode Island, as well as the surrounding areas that use our bridges all the time are in support of these barriers,” says Cotta.

The public’s call for installing safety/suicide prevent barriers has gained a powerful advocate.  House Speaker K. Joseph Shekarchi (D-District 23, Warwick), states “I admire Representative Solomon’s passion and commitment to this issue. We will continue to work with him.”

At press time, 2,630 have signed Cotta and Ganley’s petition to add barriers to Rhode Island’s unprotected bridges.  They hope to add thousands more to send a message to the Congressional Delegation, the Governor and the General Assembly to act to add physical barriers to Mount Hope, Pell, Jamestown and Sakonnet Bridges. To view and sign this petition, go to tinyurl.com/ribridgingthegap

Suicide emergency? Call 911. Need to Talk? Call The Samaritans of Rhode Island at 401.272.4044 or 1.800.365.4044. Learn more at http://www.samaritansri.org

Samaritans Celebrate Their Fortieth Birthday

Published in Woonsocket Call on January 22, 2017

In 2001, Denise Panichas took the temporary job as executive director of The Samaritans of Rhode Island, only expecting to stay at the helm for six week. Looking back over the last 16 years the Woonsocket resident clearly sees the hook that has kept her in her very demanding job.

“After my arrival people I knew, from all walks of life, came up to me sharing their personal stories of losing a loved one to suicide or being a caregiver to a person with physical or behavioral problems,” says Panichas. “My decision to stay in my temporary position for just one week, turned into two weeks and then time just quickly flew by,” she says, noting that her empathy grew daily with each encounter with Rhode Islanders who suffered the tragic loss of a loved one.

Surviving the Financial Storm

Running a small statewide nonprofit is not as easy as one thinks, notes Panichas, as she reflected on the uncontrollable obstacles she had to overcome to keep The Samaritans, the state’s only nonprofit group exclusively dedicated to suicide prevention and education, financially afloat.

Panichas watched her donations dry up as the America’s economy spiraled out of control during the 2008 financial crisis, some calling it the nation’s worst the 1930’s Great Depression. Before that, at the state-level, The Samaritans along with many of Rhode Island’s nonprofits, lost funding when the United Way of Rhode Island eliminated member agencies, cutting assistance to many nonprofit groups. “The Samaritans lost over $50,000 from these cuts,” says Panichas, stressing that that downsizing and redirected fundraising efforts to target individual contributors and special event fundraisers (“Cross the Bridge to Hope” at the Pell Bridge Run) brought in needed funds into the nonprofit’s coffers to man the hotlines and its grief support group.

Today, 17 percent of The Samaritan’s funding comes from state and local grants, the rest coming from foundation, individual, corporate and special event contributions. Eighty one percent of its fundraising dollars is allocated to program, she says.

But, Panichas now sees better times for The Samaritans as she begins organizing events and programs that will take place in the upcoming months to celebrate the 40th Anniversary of The Samaritans. “In February, we are planning to release the details about the free programs and special events that will serve as our fundraisers,” she says.

Panichas and her board of 12 community leaders, from six Rhode Island communities and nearby Massachusetts, are also in discussion with the Preservation Society of Pawtucket to purchase the Baker-Hanley House, one of the City’s oldest houses, on Park Place, to serve as its first owned headquarters. The agency is planning a “Peace Garden” at the side of the historic structure to allow visitors to mediate and reflect on loved ones they have lost through suicide. .

Over forty years, The Samaritans have worked hard to bring the topic of suicide out of the closet and into public discussion, say Meredith Hampton, president of The Samaritan’s who has served on its board for over 15 years. “We have persevered and gained public support who have rallied behind our efforts,” she says.

Like Panichas, Hampton, a Cranston resident who serves as senior project manager for Norwood, Massachusetts-based Cramer Production Company, a marketing and communications firm, is thrilled that her nonprofit is celebrating its ruby anniversary of providing programs and services to the Rhode Island community. Hampton notes that owning a building will “put a face to the organization” and she expects the capital campaign to be announced in a couple of months.

Reaching out to Rhode Island’s Lonely

“Feeling low with nowhere to turn” noted songwriter Bill Withers says is a public service announcement regularly played, there is a place to call – The Samaritans – where trained volunteers “are there to listen.” Incorporated in 1977, the Pawtucket-based nonprofit program is dedicated to reducing the occurrence of suicide by befriending the despairing and lonely throughout the state’s 39 cities and towns.

Since the inception, The Samaritans has received more than 550,000 calls and trained more 1,355 volunteers to answer its confidential and anonymous Hotline/Listening Lines.

With the first Samaritan branch started in England in 1953, independent Samaritan branches can now be found in more than 40 countries of the world. “Samaritans, can I help you?” is quietly spoken into the phone across the world in a multilingual chorus of voices,” notes its web site.

The communication-based program teaches volunteers to effectively listen to people who are in crisis, says Panichas, noting that conversations are free, confidential and, most importantly, anonymous.

A rigorous 21-hour training program teaches volunteers to listen to callers without expressing personal judgments or opinions. Panichas said that the listening techniques called “befriending,” calls for 90 percent listening and 10 percent talking.
“Suicide is considered a missed opportunity in prevention,” says Panichas. She stresses, “If you are doing all the talking there is a very chance that you will miss what is really bothering the hopeless caller.”

Panichas noted in 2016 more than 5,491 calls were logged into The Samaritans’ Listening Line, a great resource for caregivers and older Rhode Islanders. She estimates that 997 came from seniors.

In 2016, The Samaritans hosted over 108,305 visitors to its website, many going to caregiver information. The nonprofit’s website received 1,487,691 hits and 233,336 pages were viewed. Panichas believes that the increased website visits are due to the “growing problem of suicide and our nonprofit group’s effective use of social media.”

Other services include a peer-to-peer grief Safe Place Support Group for those left behind by suicide as well as community education programs.

The Samaritans can be the gateway to care or a “compassionate nonjudgmental voice on the other end of the line,” Panichas notes. “It doesn’t matter what your problem is, be it depression, suicidal thoughts, seeking resources for mental health services in the community or being lonely or just needing to talk, our volunteers are there to listen.”

Rhode Island’s Art Community Supports Program and Services

In December 2011, The Samaritans began a social venture, by relocating to the City of Pawtucket’s 307 acre Arts & Entertainment District. According to Panichas, a built out professional gallery allowed her to open the Forget-Me-Not Gallery and Community Education Center. Through networking and partnerships with Rhode Island’s fine arts and crafts community, “we are able to foster hope, inspiration and commemoration of the lives of our loved ones who have fallen victim to suicide,” she says.

“Every piece of art sold or every gift bought through our gift shop provides needed funded for our programs and also contributes to Rhode Island’s state artistic small business economy,” says Panichas.

Eric Auger of Pawtucket and co-owner of Ten31 Productions also in Pawtucket, volunteers his time and talent in curating gallery shows throughout the year, says Panichas, noting that there have been more than two dozen exhibits, performances and education programs since 2011.

At the Forget-Me-Not Gallery, no sales taxes are charged on one-of-a-kind pieces of art work. The gallery also is a retail site for Rhode Island-based Alex and Ani jewelry and other giftware.

For those seeking to financially support the programs of The Samaritans, its Gallery and Education Center is available to rent for special events, meetings and other types of occasions. For information on gallery rental, call the Samaritans business line at 401-721-5220; or go to http://www.samaritansri.org.

Need to Talk? Call a volunteer at The Samaritans. Call 401.272.4044 or toll free in RI (1-800) 365-4044.

For persons interested in more information about suicide emergencies, The Samaritans website, http://www.samaritansri.org, has an emergency checklist as well as information by city and town including Blackstone Valley communities from Pawtucket to Woonsocket.