County Crisis Services and Parks Police look to stem Niagara Falls suicides

June 29--It is a natural wonder that attracts upwards of 8 million visitors a year.

Its wild, cascading rapids and breathtaking 167-foot plunge places Niagara Falls as one of the top tourist destinations in the world.

Yet for all its spectacle and grandeur, the falls also has a dark side.

A search of Internet web sites that cater to troubled souls shows the falls as one of the top 10 spots for those who seek to commit suicide. One popular list even ranks the falls as high as fourth on its top 10 list of "Famous Landmarks That Are Creepy Suicide Magnets."

It's a distinction that keeps both police and mental health professionals alert.

"What we're looking at is increasing prevention, instead of intervention," said Jim Swift, the supervising social worker with the NIagara County Department of Mental Health's Crisis Services program. "Our interventions have been going up, so we want to increase prevention (to bring interventions down)."

"Intervention" is the term that applies to when Swift and State Parks Police negotiators are called to the falls to deal with folks in crisis who have waded into the water or are threatening to jump. The goal then, is keep those people from getting close to the brink or going over.

On the front line of efforts to increase and improve "prevention" are what are known as the "Blue Phones." With beacons of blue light that can been seen from up to half a mile away, the five phones are located at spots in the state park that hopefully will draw the attention of those who are looking to take their own lives.

"When (someone looking to commit suicide) comes here, they see the phones," State Parks Police Major David Page said. "The phones make them aware that before they go over (the falls) there is still hope."

When a person picks up one of the phones they are instantly connected to a crisis services worker who immediately begins an attempt to intervene and prevent the suicide attempt. The phones are located by the American falls at Prospect Point, the Horseshoe Falls at Terrapin Point, the pedestrian bridge over the rapids at the park entrance, on Three Sisters Island and the newest phone is now on-line by the Bridal Veil Falls.

"I think the phones have us pretty well covered now," said Parks Police Lt. Patrick Moriarty.

ALARMING TREND

When it comes to suicide interventions, few people are more knowledgeable than Moriarty. The veteran state parks police lieutenant has been involved in countless rescues both in the rapids and at the very brink of the falls.

But his face draws tight and grim when he talks about what he sees as a recent trend in suicide attempts.

"We've seen a definite increase in young people either attempting suicide or committing suicide," Moriarty said. "And we're very concerned about that."

He points to what parks police experienced, as recently as May 27, as proof of a disturbing new demographic in falls suicides. On that day, police dealt with three separate incidents, all involving men in their early 20s.

Park police, Crisis Services negotiators and Falls firefighters responded to a call of a man in the water above the American falls. The 20-year-old, from out-of-state, was able to be talked back to the shoreline.

But not long after that, construction workers in the park reported seeing a man running down a hillside and into the rapids above the Bridal Veil falls. That man, also a 20-something, from downstate, plunged to his death.

And still later in the day, Park police got a call from a Falls resident who found a suicide note, from their mid-20s son, saying he was jumping over the falls. The man's car was found a short time later, parked at the Hard Rock Cafe.

He has not been heard from since. The working assumption is that he too, has become one of the 20 to 25 known suicides each year at the falls.

"We've had (suicides) of all ages, but I've never seen this kind of trend (with young people)," Moriarty said.

REVERSING THE TIDE

Swift says he's seen other changes in the pattern among those looking to commit suicide at the falls.

"Ten years ago, 65 to 70 percent of the calls that our crisis team responded to (at the falls) were repeat individuals, folks who we'd intervened with before," he said. "In the last two and a half years, over 50 percent of our calls are from (people who had not had previous contact with Crisis Services)."

"You wonder if this is the new normal," Moriarty mused. "we certainly don't want that."

With increasing numbers of young people, particularly young men, making their way to the falls, Swift said his program is looking to rapidly build awareness that both help and hope are available to those in crisis.

"We are looking at ways to get the word out and increase awareness of the services that are available (to those in crisis)," Swift said. "We're increasing our work in the schools and our new director is looking for other ways to increase our collaborations (with agencies looking to prevent suicide). The focus needs to be on getting the word out that we're here and we can help."

Swift said a suicide prevention coalition is currently being formed in Niagara County.

Moriarty believes the trend in younger suicide victims can be reversed. He recalled an incident, earlier in his career, that involved the suicide of an 80-year-old woman and how that has shaped his views on trying to save folks.

"I was running along the shoreline and she looked me right in the eye, and it was like she was telling, this is OK. She had lost her husband, and was dealing with (serious health issues of her own) and she wanted to go," Moriarty said. "I wasn't OK with it, but I could understand it. But these young kids, I'll never understand it. And I won't tolerate it.

"There is help for them."

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