A Boston city councilor wants to address measures to prevent suicides at high-rise garages after a person recently jumped to their death in Chinatown, causing a debate with a colleague who said she felt triggered by his language.
The council referred Councilor Ed Flynn’s order to the Committee on Public Health, Homelessness, and Recovery to set a hearing on the issue, while some members are urging their colleagues to be mindful of how their words may be taken.
In his order, Flynn highlighted how the recent jumping incident at a Chinatown high-rise garage is the second suicide within the past two years at the location. He noted other deaths that have happened have involved garages at Tufts Medical Center, Boston Medical Center and Northeastern University.
Flynn has said he is considering filing an ordinance that would require parking garages to install necessary equipment to prevent jumping. That request could be presented as soon as this Wednesday.
“I want to see what we could do to slash lives and have this important conversation,” Flynn said at last week’s council meeting.
Councilor Sharon Durkan argued that she felt triggered by Flynn’s hearing order, saying the issue is “deeply personal” and that she doesn’t have “animus” with her colleague speaking out about the problem.
Rather, Durkan said she felt “really strongly about not using the term ‘committed suicide’ and instead, using the term ‘died by suicide.’” Flynn’s hearing order didn’t use the phrase “committed suicide.”
“I know many people feel so strongly about the way we talk about this particular issue,” Durkan said at last week’s meeting. “I think it’s very important that we not use stigmatizing language to describe those who have taken their own lives.”
Flynn called Durkan’s criticism “disappointing,” noting how he has advocated for mental health access for disabled veterans at the local, state and national levels. “I know this issue as well as anyone in this building, but the last thing I want to do is stigmatize someone,” he said.
“My concern is, going forward,” Flynn added, “what are we going to do about high-rise parking garages that are easily accessible for people without any rails, our infrastructure. That’s my message. That message has been lost because of this distraction.”
Durkan responded, “I was not trying to distract, but the way we talk about mental health does matter.”
Flynn noted in his hearing order that jumps from high-rise garages are “not often reported due to the ‘Werther Effect,’ the phenomenon where suicide rates increase following the publication of news reports about suicide.”
The Herald reported in February that a person died after falling from the MassDOT building in downtown Boston, with authorities considering it a suicide. The publication does not usually mention suicides, but did so in this situation because of the very public setting of the death.
In May, Boston Police investigated after a man jumped to his death from a parking garage used by the Boston Medical Center and Boston University Medical Campus, the Daily Voice reported.
“While most tall buildings and bridges have barriers or fencing to prevent people who are distressed from jumping,” Flynn stated in his resolution, “parking garages are often accessible to the public with minimum security or barriers, making it harder to prevent people in distress, or with mental health issues, from jumping.”
Flynn led a hearing in early 2020 that addressed suicide prevention measures for high-rise parking garages, focusing on whether railings, signage, cameras and training for attendants should be required.
That hearing came after a West Roxbury mother and her two children died on Christmas Day in 2019, in what authorities called a double murder-suicide at the Renaissance Park Garage. The holiday tragedy followed two other suicides at the Northeastern University parking deck in 2019.
A Northeastern spokeswoman said at the time that temporary signage had been installed and that the university would continue to restrict access to the best of the Renaissance garage “until a permanent solution — including structural modifications and signage to assist individuals in distress — is implemented.”
Additional surveillance cameras were installed, while 24-hour security was in place.
Councilor Julia Mejia said she looked at the debate between Durkan and Flynn as a “teachable” moment. She called herself a “suicide attempt survivor, while mentioning that her grandfather and cousin, a military veteran, “died by suicide.”
“It is important for us to just be mindful of each other as we continue to have conversations like this,” Mejia said. “I want to remain focused on what the intent of this hearing order is about, and that is the people who are experiencing pain.”
Chris Christo/Boston Herald
Sharon Durkan (Chris Christo/Boston Herald)
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