Boise parking garages look to curb suicide attempts

Boise’s urban-renewal agency is looking at ways to curb suicide attempts at downtown parking garages.

Employees at Capitol City Development Corp. received training last week on how to identify and approach people who may be considering jumping from the garages’ upper stories. Parking and facilities director Max Clark told the Idaho Statesman that the agency will also post 50 signs on upper levels of the six downtown parking garages with the number for the Idaho Suicide Prevention Hotline (208-398-HELP).

The move comes after the Boise newspaper ran a story about a night last April when two strangers contemplated jumping from the same downtown garage. One, a 15-year-old boy, was planning to jump from the eighth story when he saw a woman jump from the third story of the same building. That prompted him to change his mind.

The woman survived the fall, and the teen, Talon Owens, has since become a suicide prevention advocate.

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Information from: Idaho Statesman, http://www.idahostatesman.com